Have you ever considered getting a trademark or copyright for your horse business name or logo? If not, you should. And, Attorney Jo Belasco is here to share why it will protect your business and how to get it done.
Welcome to the show notes! Remember, this is a brief summary from the How to Market Your Horse Business podcast. You'll want to listen to the entire episode for all the good stuff!
For this episode, I'm introducing you to Attorney Jo Belasco. Jo has a virtual law firm where she uses her years of horse experience to serve equine businesses.
In this episode, you'll hear Jo share a lot of information here, but it's important for you to note she is not offering legal advice through this interview. She is providing educational information.
When you think of why you'd need an attorney, you might be thinking about contracts or maybe estate planning. But, when it comes to marketing your horse business, trademarks and copyrights take the cake.
Most horse businesses don't realize how trademarking their brand or logo can protect their business in the long term.
It gives you the ability to keep someone from using your logo or brand which could impact your business reputation.
On the flip side, if you're infringing on someone else's trademark, you may actually have to rebrand. Can you imagine the hassle of that?
Jo broke down the differences between patents, trademarks, and copyrights. In very simple terms, you can think of it this way:
patents are related to inventions (think in terms of products such as horseshoes or saddles)
trademarks are related to brands (think business names and logos)
copyrights are related to creative works (think photos)
She also shared some real-life examples of horse businesses that hadn't trademarked their logos or brands from the outset, including the risk that was involved and what they experienced.
As you can imagine, it was a full conversation, so you'll want to listen to it to get all the details.
When you work with Jo, here's the process of getting a trademark or copyright:
Comprehensive search. Are there others already registered that are close or similar?
Legal analysis. What classes will yours fall under?
File the application.
Assigned to examining attorney. They make the decision.
Published in the trademark official gazette. There are 30 days for someone to file an opposition.
Actual trademark certificate.
Jo shared more of this process in detail, of course, so you'll want to listen to the full episode to dig into how you can apply this to your own business!
Links mentioned in this episode:
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