Trademark Registration
Lesson 14 from: Copyright, Trademark, and Intellectual Property for FilmmakersRachel Rodgers
Trademark Registration
Lesson 14 from: Copyright, Trademark, and Intellectual Property for FilmmakersRachel Rodgers
Lesson Info
14. Trademark Registration
Lessons
Introduction to Advanced IP for Filmmakers
03:27 2Looking Through the Lens of IP
09:06 3Client Service Agreements
09:58 4Grant of Rights Clause
09:09 5Rights of Copyright
01:39 6No Guarantees Clause
05:05 7Works for Hire
03:33 8Boilerplate Clauses
10:19Lesson Info
Trademark Registration
So now the last thing that I want to cover today is something that's really important for filmmakers and that's trademark registration. Now, trademark registration is like I said away, free to protect the elements of your brand so that's, how you're going to protect your logo, your brand name, your taglines, anything that sort of associated with your brand that's, what you can use like, for example, nbc has that those times due to do that that nbc has. They actually have a trademark for that so you can trademark sound recordings. You can actually trademark colors. There's, a company called corning that makes insulation for houses and their insulation, is always pink and that's. How people know when they see a new house going up in the neighborhood if that insulation is pink it's corning insulation, so they've actually registered the trademark for the color pink, so you can actually do that now. That doesn't mean that no one else can use the color pink. It just means that no one else wh...
o provides. Insulation can use the color pink, right? So it gives them a competitive advantage and lets people know when it's their sort of authentic product. Right? So this is important for filmmakers to, you know, express your brand, right? So if you've got a name for your studio, you want to register their trademark for the name of your studio to prevent others from trying, you know, from your competitors from trying to use the same name or use the same tagline. So that would be a reason to do that, and it gives you exclusive rights for that aspect of your brand. So the logo, the tagline, you're the name of your business, right? So I have a registration mark registration for small business bodyguard that is the name of, you know, my one of my flagship products. That's an, you know, legal kit for small business owners, right? And so I registered in a variety of categories to prevent other lawyers or other people who create legal content from create from using the name small, but this body guard when they do it. And that way, my customers know that it's our product when they see small business bodyguard on something. Ok, so that's, the reason to protect your brand, this can also be super important if you are creating documentaries or, you know, sort of a film series, and you want to create some sort of buzz around it. A lot of times the documentaries, one of the ways you might raise money to create such a film is by selling t shirts or selling mugs or other paraphernalia with the brand or the logo of the film on it. So it's, a sort of a secondary way for you to generate revenue, and you don't want to be creating that type of stuff without registering the trademark, because you want people to know that this is your authentic mark. You want to prevent other people from being able to take your name of your documentary and create t shirts, right? So this way it preserves your right to sort of generate revenue from different promotional content or products. So trademark registration is done at the u s patent and trademark office's website, so if you just go to uspto dot gov there's an application there, but this is actually something that I don't recommend that you do on your own. Unlike copyright registration, trademark registration is kind of complicated, okay, so this is not something that you want to do by yourself. I would highly recommend hiring a lawyer to help you do this. One thing that you can do is a trademark search. So you can do a trademark search to make sure that that brand name that you want to use and that you want to reserve for your business is actually available. So to make sure it's not trademarked already to some other business and so trademark search can help you vet the name of either your film or the name of your studio or your tag line and make sure that it's available on doesn't infringe on anyone else's trademark. And I'm actually going to show you how to do that in my other class advanced type for entrepreneurs, which you should definitely check out. Well, actually, in that class, actually walk you through a trademark search and show you how to do it. This is a service that I charge five hundred dollars for s o if you learn how to do it yourself, you can vet the names for your trademarks all on your own so valuable service. But trademark registration looks deceptively easy. It's not that's the type of thing we're just gonna have to spring for it and pay an attorney to do it for you. Okay, so that's trademark registration. So now you are an empowered filmmaker, you understand the intellectual property in your business and you know exactly how to protect it have a solid contract with all of your clients and subjects. Register the copyright for your videos and films. Make sure you retain ownership of those videos so that you can register that copyright. Make sure you have a new obtained clearance for your I p appearing in films. I'm sorry chain clearance for I p that belongs to other copyright owners that are appearing in your film have an action plan for dealing with infringers. When we talked to monique, I talked about some of the steps that you can take if people still your videos. So now you have an action plan to use. And then lastly, don't forget about trademarks. Make sure you register the brand name for your business, the name of your studio, and if you create a documentary or any other type of film, siri's, you want to register the trademark for that. So now you are an empowered filmmaker in a position to protect your intellectual property and profit from it. Thank you for joining me.
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Ratings and Reviews
Robert W. Daniel
This is HOT! This is a must see course for anyone who is producing or filming an independent film.
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