Why Trademark Is Stupid!
As I grow my business, I have to start paying attention to copyright and trademark. More than the average person.
With every passing day, I'm starting to hate trademarks.
What Is a Trademark?
Heres what I got from Google.
trade·mark
ˈtrādˌmärk/Submit
noun
1.
A symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product.
Synonyms: logo, brand, emblem, sign, mark, stamp, symbol, badge, crest, monogram, colophon; More
The Website Trademarkia Has become my new go to a website to check trademarks.
This is a great tool for other business owners that need to check Trademarks.
I spend hours a day researching a variety of trademarks. And it's making me hate the way it works.
If you wanted to, You could file a trademark for a variety of things, Purley to mess with your competition.
With my Tshirt store. We aren't allowed to use any trademarked phrases and some words.
So as I make a title, description, etc. I have to make sure nothing I say is Trademarked.
Seriously?
What kind of shit is that?
It's one thing to trademark
"Steemit."
"Facebook."
"Pokemon."
Because these are made up names, That aren't used in the English language. But It makes me mad when people "trademark" something like this..
"Apple."
"Chicken."
"Eggs."
Seriously!?
To be fair, The T-shirt program I'm in is considerably more strict than any other I've seen. I can't blame them to a certain degree. But it's still annoying, Because if someone Trademarks: "This Shirt Is Cool."
Then I'm not allowed to put that in my description.
Should Trademark Even Be Allowed?
I see the benefits to trademark. But I find them limited.
I get it, If your products are called "Mouses," You wouldn't want another company to come in, call their company "Mouses" then trick people into thinking that the products are from the same company.
It's confusing. I don't want to say that we shouldn't allow people to call their certain business names. Because I hate restrictions like that. But at the same time, Do you have the right to trademark a sentence? Or a quote? That you weren't the original creator for?
Which I feel like almost any quote your brain could come up with, You were never actually the original creator.
I know that depending on the products you sell; you can get a trademark for that thing. So more than one company can use the same trademark name but sell different products. That makes it a little better
More Entrepreneurs
I feel as we have more and more people starting business. A scary realistic question comes up.
Won't we run out of things to trademark?
I feel this is possible. If I have the money for it, I could trademark thousands of quotes so you can't use them on shirts. Or whatever your making.
I feel like legal battles will get more complicated and messy.
Will we get to the point, Where we can't use anything without fear of violating trademark laws?
I'm already scared to death when I'm typing up the descriptions for my shirts, Because sadly I can't copy and paste paragraphs of text into Trademarkia, and have it search any possible infringing phrases I may be using.
What do you think about Trademark? Do you think it's time we change things?
www.Kaylinart.org
Thank you @elyaque for the awesome Badges!
I'm not sure if you've read this, but you might enjoy it. It clarified some of the trademark rules for me: https://secureyourtrademark.com/can-you-trademark/common-words-phrases/
Wow thank you! I love it. It makes a lot of sense. It makes me feel a little better about common words being Trademarked.
I see your business is growing, do you have anyone working with you or is it just you ? if not you might want to get some help, I really wouldn't like what youre doing to slow down. tradermarks is something i'm not familiar with as you say we preaty much don't have to worry about it right now, but eventually we are going to have to learn to follow the rules if we want to succed not just in steemit but outside steemit as well. in my opinion trademarks rules are nesessary, what i don't agree with is on how people are trying to get aventage of this.. just rude ..
True! It is rude :)
Right now It's just me. I used to have employees. But I'm working towards getting employees again. Sometimes I just can't afford it :)
yea I think is necesary but almost all the time the people with long buck$$$ tend to abuse the system and we are the one who pay the consequences.
We all work for our own benefit, employees are not better, they just sit around and wait for the payday to come. That's why i always wanted to have a best friend who i can trust . :/
yea! thats right, gladly Im starting a business with my best friend let see how thats go because we are kind of new in this business thing, thats way I was looking for copyrights and tradmark for some slogan and logo design Im planing to do.
Ahhh i envy you for that , my only dream and desire is to have a best friend who i can count on, i guess im going to keep on trying :(
thats right you will mind him in the perfect moment when you need him the most. in the past I have a few best friend like 8 anad for me they still my besty but I lose contact with a few of the and one is in USA, but this one I talk to you about it was the last I met lke 10 years ago we called our self brother for me he is the brother that I always wanted I just have too little sis you see and he of all have help me the most thats why I respect him and apreciated so much I love him! hes my brother from another mother jeje. So dont worry the day will come and that day you will remember me and who knows maybe this post too jeje. take care my friend.
Trademark and copyright is 100% Absolutely NOT Stupid it's what allows content creators, artists creatives to make a very good living. Without it they are nothing more than wage slaves getting paid only once. Without Intellectual property protection the licensing industry would not exist, branding would not exist, and investing in the creation of work would not be profitable.
Without it anyone could steal your work ad start selling it on product, steal a book or song you wrote and profit from your work.
I have had people steal my work before. I had a book and my sales letter stolen, if not for these laws the people would have made ton of money off my work.
Trademark and copyright are both needed. For your store if you came up with something that was selling without TM protection anyone else could rip it off and start selling it.
With copyright you can't copyright short phrases or book titles but with Trademark you IF it is for a class of goods or a line of products.
I agree that they are both needed to a certain degree. I just feel that Trademark is being abused to a certain degree. As an artist I can totally relate to you.
I think @kaylinart raised a very serious topic. Very emotional! But laws on trademarks and copyright must be changed. They do not protect authors. Only huge corporations have the opportunity to benefit from these laws. All the rest do not get anything, just a headache.
Agreed! Smaller authors and illustrators cannot always protect themselves against a bigger company.
also where do you get this cool pictures, they're such peices of work.. well done
I get them from Pixabay.com Or Pexels.com
They are really nice stock photos!
very good information and yes isa hard true. is a pain in the A..
Thank you! It iss.
Prefixes and suffixes ;D
It's just an excuse for large corporations/conglomerates to consume the industries. Modern day monopoly.
Allow me to add some notes. I want to say this respectively.
Understand the following:
A trademark is necessary as it is a brand, or a brand name AS IT is used by a businesses as an identification sign to distinguish goods and services from competitors. I'd says "We all need it." Tough rocks... That's the reality. Learn to leverage the system. I don't like it just as much as the next. You may hate "Taxes" yet you can leverage the system through education and in this information age it is all possible.