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Written by : Iraida Billingsley |
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hey everybody my name is marcelo dominguez and i welcome you back to my trademark channel here you are going to learn about everything trademark related whether you're a small business or medium-sized business online or offline if you haven't subscribed i invite you to do so right now before you even start watching this video if you are wondering how in the world am i going to put a stop to trademark infringement how am i going to stop that person from using my name slogan brand trademark because they've been using it after i started using it then you want to stay tuned and watch everything i have to say because you might take a few take home tips you see trademark infringement is a really big deal it's a big deal on amazon even off of amazon if you have an online store or if you have a brick and mortar store right now the issue is obviously more prevalent in online businesses and on amazon because of what is going on people working more behind their computers rather than visiting brick and mortar locations but the issue of trademark infringement has been around for a really really long time it is such an important issue that you need to make yourself aware of for various reasons which i am going to touch on in this video reason number one you need to know about trademark infringement because if you ever encounter it in other words if somebody sends you a letter letting you know that you have been trademark infringing you might not even know it you didn't know that you were using a slogan or a business name that is already in use by somebody else moreover that business name or slogan or tagline might not even be the exact same one as the one you're using and i'll tell you a little tip it's a little secret more often than not the name you are using is not going to be the exact same as the one that the trademark infringer is claiming you are infringing upon so in other words it might be similar to someone else's and they still might have the right to say that you are trademark infringing and so in those situations you might feel totally caught off guard you think to yourself but mine is so different mine is not the exact same i do not even sell the exact same products well let me tell you there's a lot of gray area when it comes to trademark infringement and i mean gray area in the mind of the consumer so if you're someone that sells on amazon then it's very important for you to know how you're going to approach this situation what am i going to do am i going to respond to this person first am i going to reach out to an attorney first so that is reason number one and i want to address that very question that i left you hanging with right now should you respond to the trademark phone call that lets you know you're infringing should you respond to the letter that tells you you are trademark infringing or should you reach out to an attorney first and my suggestion is always this if you feel you are really in a predicament and you might dig yourself a deeper hole by responding to that letter or to that phone call then i suggest that you reach out to an attorney first you see the information that you provide either on a phone call or through an email or through a letter through any means of communication can be used against you later now that sounds so cliche right it sounds some like something a typical lawyer would say anything you say can and will be used against you but that is the truth so you want to make sure that you are saying and providing information that is accurate and that won't later be used against you so sometimes you have to be careful of how you word things there are different ways to explain facts so you want to make sure that you aren't going to get yourself into any kind of trouble by responding in your choice of words so that's what an attorney is there for to kind of make sure that you're responding in such a way that you aren't digging a deeper hole for yourself now reason number three if you are made aware that you are trademark infringing it might not always be in the form of a phone call or a letter or an email and i'll tell you if you are in the trademark application process there is something called a notice of opposition now a notice of opposition is a formal filing typically by a lawyer through the trademark trial and appeal board that basically tells the trademark trial and appeal board hey i want to put a stop to this person's application for such and such reasons one of those reasons could be trademark infringement so it might not always be in the form of an email or a phone call it's going to come in a circumstance which might not be that familiar to you everybody familiarizes themselves with emails and with phone calls so you know that could be expected but when it comes in the form of a notice of opposition through you know the trademark process or through your trademark journey then it might really throw you off guard i don't want that to set you back so if you're interested in finding out why you received a notice of opposition or if you're interested in being defended against a notice of opposition then make sure that you click down below you have to scroll down into the description so use your mouse keep scrolling until you find the information that you need to be able to contact me remember it's free to send an email so i just want to remind you that responding to a trademark infringement can sometimes be as easy as responding to a phone call and working it out with the other side and if you're somebody who prefers to do all of this in email that is good because it's always great to formalize communications in such a way that you can refer back to them later but i'm not so sure that i would recommend that you should respond on your own with your own words in your own language using your you know using however you would personally respond because that could get you in trouble later now again to recap you could also be receiving a trademark infringement notice through a notice of opposition now i want to give you an example of some of the clients that i've helped without telling you all of the details but what i can say is what i have said already and that is that most of the time you're not going to be contacted by somebody who has the exact same name as the one you're trying to use more often than not it's going to be someone who's using a similar name and so that's also going to throw you off guard so trademark infringement is all about understanding these nuances right um because it is common to get phone calls that say but how how could they be uh telling me that i'm infringing why would i receive a c synthesis letter if mine is different than theirs my spelling the spelling of my name the spelling of my slogan or tagline is different maybe it's different by just a couple of letters maybe it's different by just a couple of words but nonetheless uh consumer confusion in the marketplace is what ultimately drives attorneys to send that cease and desist letter or to oppose someone's trademark so it's really important that if you want to understand what is actually going on that you hire an attorney
Thanks for your comment Francesco Shoultz, have a nice day.
- Iraida Billingsley, Staff Member
Thanks for this interesting article
Thanks Mariano your participation is very much appreciated
- Iraida Billingsley
About the author
I've studied narratology at Lee University in Cleveland and I am an expert in occupational psychology. I usually feel dirty. My previous job was survey researchers I held this position for 3 years, I love talking about geocaching and bingo. Huge fan of Roger Federer I practice softball and collect handbags.
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