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Welcome to the Designer's Plants and Coffee podcast where we discuss how to succeed as a designer

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while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we

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love. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.

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We get a lot of questions about how to protect your work, and I will say it's almost impossible

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to keep that from happening because if you look at a major designer and then you look at the

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stuff that's in a fast fashion house, it's all the same thing. The difference is the quality

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of it. Protecting your design is a whole different topic from protecting your brand. So if somebody

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were to come out with Fearless threads and they were to have script intact and the needle running

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through it, then I would have an issue because they're copying my brand. But if somebody were

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to take the jacket I made and make it and not use the materials I use and sell it for $60 where

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I sell mine for $200. There's nothing I can do about it. Because let's face it, we're all inspired

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by other art, other people, other things that we see. So I don't believe that imitation is the

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best form of flattery because my work is my work, but you just kinda have to take it with a

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grain of salt.

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Also, your intellectual property, meaning your brand, you have to protect at all costs. So once

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you become established and you building your brand, you have to get a trademark. I mean, I wouldn't

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say you do that right away because it can get expensive. When you know that this is what you're

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gonna do and this is the way you're going forward, protect your brand. I saw something on Instagram,

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like, recently. There was this woman who basically got her stuff made overseas, and she didn't

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have her thing trademarked. So the factory researched it Mhmm. Saw that she didn't have her

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thing trademarked and actually trademarked her name. Her is because she already had this stuff

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in the market and she can prove it. But it cost her a whole bunch of money, bunch of time, lawyers

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back and forth. So your intellectual property, you have to protect. Your designs, honestly,

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it's a dime a dozen. You just have to move forward. Put it out fast. Get with your get your

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money and move on.

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There is no law in the US to protect your designs. However, when you go overseas to Europe,

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they have laws to protect designs.

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Mhmm.

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So please do not try to go over there, have a design, and you try to, knock something off over

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there. You will get sued. Even if you are a US based designer, you will get sued. But in the

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US, it's a free for all.

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Everybody knows the 3 stripes, Adidas. So in the industry, a lot of people wanna copy that,

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especially the the discounters. Mhmm. Want to copy the Adidas because, you know, it's a recognizable

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symbol. They trademark that, and they go after people who use the 3 stripe. Nobody can use the

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3 stripes in that order, those sizes, those distances away from each other because you will get sued.

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It's the same thing with licensed products too. So you can't take your favorite sport team and

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make something out of the fabric the commercial use. And they have a team that sits on places

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like Etsy and Shopify and Facebook, cannot afford it. Everyone knows about the Rothlawn Polo

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cannot afford it.

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Everyone knows about the Ralph Lauren Polo brand. Well, there's another brand that is, US Polo

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Association, and then it took them nearly decades because Ralph Lauren went after them for trademark

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infringement. So now if you all ever see the US Polo Association, they still have the horse,

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but they don't have just 1 polo player. They have, like, 2.

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Sorry, guys.

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Thing was just because everyone was thinking this was the same thing, and it's not. Also with

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the Christian Louboutin, the, red bottoms, they came out with this shoe that was all red and

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the bottom of the sole was red. Christian Louboutin tried to sue for the red bottoms. Well,

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he lost that suit because there was nothing special about the red paint, and he just put it

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on the bottom of the sole. However, someone else would try to put their packaging the same color

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blue and the same little white, white bow as Tiffany. Their packaging, all of that is actually

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protected it under trademark and packaging. So if Christian Louboutin had actually had some

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type of special packaging with the red sole in the bar, he may have been able to get away with

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that, but, hey, it's just red paint on the bottom of his sole.

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Didn't he go back and create a custom paint after that? So you can paint the bottom of your

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shoe red, but you can't use paint number x y z from Yeah. Wherever he gets it from. So, yeah,

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he he learned his lesson from that and said, okay. I can't tell them they can't make red bottoms,

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but I can tell them they can't make my red bottom. So Right.

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And there was also this thing on Instagram going back and forth. I know Nike was going after

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a lot of independent sneaker makers because they were using the Air Force 1, mold to make their

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own sneaker. But, I mean, they changed it and put their their logo on it. But in fact, it was

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still just the Air Force 1 mold. And everybody knows how famous the Air Force 1 is. So have

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to change it enough so that it's your own. You know, I think the the lawyers, you cannot mistake

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it. If you just look at it and you automatically think it's that brand, then they have means

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to come after you. You have to change it enough so that you're not competing with the original.

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You can trademark anything you want. I mean, sometimes it goes through. Sometimes it doesn't.

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Right. But it doesn't matter if you don't have the resources to go after anybody. Right. So

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you have to really be aware of what you're trademarking. I mean, your name, absolutely. But

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when you start trademarking, like, items like the 3 stripes, the the plaid, the red bottoms,

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that kind of stuff, you have to have the resources to actually go after the people to back yourself

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up. Yes. Otherwise, people gonna knock you off and you can't do anything about it. You know?

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And when I'm talking about resources, I mean money for lawyers

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to You even need to pay somebody to sit like Nike does or like the NFL does all day and search

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through all of these places to see if somebody is using your thing. That costs money.

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The other side of it is copywriting. You know? And a lot of people ask if you wanna copyright

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your art. If you're an artist, if you paint and stuff like that, if you have original pieces

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and you start to produce it, yes, you can copyright that stuff. But when you start putting,

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like, graphics on t shirts and stuff, in terms of money and time, it's not necessarily worth

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it because next season, you wanna do something else. So copywriting is a little bit less protective,

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honestly, than trademarking. And when you start to get into graphics, not unless it's very specific.

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It really doesn't matter. It doesn't make sense to financially if you're starting out. Now if

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you're like a big brand and, you know, you're doing something, like, original, unique yes. Okay.

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Fine. You have the resources to do that. But if you're just like an independent and you you

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don't wanna put your artwork out there just because, you know, you feel somebody gonna take

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it? No. They're gonna take it anyway.

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It's it's so funny because I do a lot of pop ups and I meet a lot of people. And there is a

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woman at this pop up I was doing was selling this specific t shirt with a specific word that

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another person uses. And I was like, I don't think that's the original girl, but I'll buy 1.

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You know? I'm gonna support. And I was talking to my sister. She's like, you know, that's not

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the original girl. I was like, I didn't think so because it was, a, it was cheap. But what she

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did is she took those same words and she changed the font, and she put this little teeny logo

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at the bottom. And that was her 25%. So it could be something as simple as that.

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That's one thing that you can trademark because inside the site, that is the lining that I always

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use, and it has to be a certain color, but you can trademark that, you know, that specific thing.

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And it's it's a whole slew of ways you have to prove that this is yours.

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Making sure you do your research. And I say that because I sell a few things on Amazon. Before

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I'm submitting these my graphic and my artwork, it actually goes through a system of Amazon

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checking to make sure that whatever I've created, they check the trademark to make sure that

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I'm not posting anything on their site that will get flagged. And then as a result, they they

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would sue me. And they will actually send you the website to go to, US trademark so you could

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check it for yourself. Make sure when you're researching that the trademark that you're looking

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for is for a powerful, whatever your type you're trying to sell. Because someone could have

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the same name, but they have a completely different product.

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Right. Because when I first started, I did the same thing. And there was a company in the Midwest,

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called Fearless Threads. Their logo was different, and they sold t shirts. So I'm like, so if

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they sell t shirts and I sell this, can we have the same thing? Our logos were completely different.

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They can't sue me for stealing words. Now if I had a T shirt brand called Fearless Threats,

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they could say, hey. We've been in business since 19 whatever, and you just started, and you

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have to stop using that name. So

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And I have a, like, a similar story because when I had Cover Me Chic, someone else had the name

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in there. I think there was something like baby club. But at the time, you know, I was denied

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the first, you know, but then they did not renew the year of any

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more. Thing. Yeah.

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A year later, I was able to trademark that name. So you have to renew I think it was every 10

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years, the first time, then it's every 5 years, but you have to stay on top of your intellectual

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property. I I did it through a lawyer. You can do it yourself. It's a lot more tedious.

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We all live in major cities, but there is an organization in DC called the Washington Area Lawyers

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for Artists, w a l a, something to that effect. And they specifically work with artists as their

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counsel. Some of it is pro bono. You may have to pay something, but you can always go there

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and get information. You go to small business administration and get information. There are

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resources out there where you can start for cheap or free. Heck, call the Patent and Trademark

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Office. Right. People sit there all day long waiting for you to ask them questions. It's just

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like taxes. Call IRS if you can't afford a CPA and say, hey. How am I gonna not get in trouble?

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There are instances out there. It's just gonna take patience and research.

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Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, if you don't have the money, you're gonna have to have

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the time. One more thing about the trademark. When you trademark the US patent is US patent

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and trademark. Yes. And it's only trademarked in the US. Now if you start selling stuff overseas,

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you have to trademark it to wherever you're selling your product because somebody over there

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might have the same name. And because the Internet is so global now, it's interesting how you

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might have the same name as somebody else selling the same product, but it's not trademarked

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in that country. Don't let anything stop you. You know? Don't let anything stop you from moving

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forward with what you need to do or what you wanna do. We're just saying the steps that you

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need to take before you start putting yourself out there, but put it out there anyway. Protect

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your intellectual property because that's the most important, but designs are a dime a dozen.

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We take inspiration from everywhere. Oh, I don't wanna do this because somebody's gonna steal

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it. It's already been stolen. Okay. So that was it. I hope we got something out of this. If

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you have any questions about it, we can answer it to the best of our ability, but you do need

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to speak to a lawyer, a trademark lawyer, specifically, intellectual property lawyers so that

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they can guide you in the right direction.

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All right. So that's all for now. I'm Leticia Winston and keeping your stitches with as I hear

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it Cover Me Chic in Regent Design Agency and Naima Dozier of Feelers threads. Until next time.