Donna Fox's Legal Briefs

Help for Burnsie

2006-06-10T11:32:00.000-05:00

Burnsie needs some legal help.

Protecting your assets

2005-03-26T10:15:00.000-06:00

by Donna Fox, Esquire

"Please go trademark 'Credit Millionaire' right away"

These words made me heartrate leap. See, my partner never speaks about things like copyrights and trademarks with such urgency.

He went on..."I was just speaking with Sam [not his real name] and he said that "the from credit repair to credit millionaire system that Bobby [also not his real name] teaches is..."

In this scenario, Bobby is a professional connection of mine on a deal that went sour. And I'm the one who teaches the From Credit Repair to Credit Millionaire system.

So off to figure it out I went.

Now you may be thinking, this is easy for you, Donna, you're an attorney.

That's like saying that brain surgery is easy for a pediatrician. My specialty was corporate law, incorporating, business asset protection, etc. I don't know a think about trademarking a brand.

What I do know is how to search for information on the web.

The first place I went was www.soyouwanna.com

This is a great website if you want to get step by step instructions for how to DO something...and they have a variety of things listed on the site. From giving yourself a manicure to learning the basics of HTML, this site has "primers" on hundreds of topics.

So I read the primer on registering a trademark. Which led me to do a simple trademark search to see if "credit millionaire" had already been taken. It had not.

Then I filed the online registration form. Did I know what I was doing? No. But I proceeded as if I did. The worst that can happen is the application isn't filed correctly and I lose my $325 and have to refile. However, simply filing for it (even incorrectly) creates a paper trail that the trademark is mine...so I'm covered...even if I'm not.

I was doing ok with the application. It's pretty standard stuff...name and address, etc. ... until I got to the question : listing of specific goods +/or services associated with the mark.

I had no clue.

So, here's a bit of insight into the way my mind works. I think "who has similar expressions and uses as me?" I come up with Bob and Mark's "One Minute Millionaire" and Harv Eker's "Millionaire Mind"

So I look up both of THIER trademark applications. I borrow what they put in their application for their brand, and come up with my list of goods and services. Here it is

"instructional and educational course materials for personal and business financial education, including compact disks, digital videos, books, e-zines, cards, pamphlets, texts and written materials; bulletins and internet seminar written materials "

Pretty all-inclusive I think.

That was the only question on the application that wasn't something we already know, like an address, or the words or logo you want trademarked. Overall, it was a VERY simple process, and well worth it for protecting your brand.

So off the application went. I received an email saying I'd hear back in SEVEN MONTHS if my application for a trademark was accepted. In the mean time, I'm in a protected status.

The total time involved in this application process? 52 minutes.

Making money is great :) However, it's important not to spend so much time making money that you forget to take steps to ensure that you can KEEP the money. Trademarking a brand is just one step that's required...protecting a stream of income.

Perhaps in some other posts I'll cover the other things you need to do to make it and keep it!
Donna

Legalese: Why Lawyers Don't Speak English

2005-03-17T18:48:00.000-06:00

Dear Auburn,

Theoretically, no really! My attorney sent me a fruit basket with the following note attached:
"In consideration of your historical patronage regarding all litigious matters, I hereby give you all and singularly, my estate, right, interest, title, claim, advnatage, and use, of an in the enclosed vegetation, with all its rind, skin, seeds, juice, pulp, pith and pips, and all the rights and advantages therein, with full power to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the aforementioned vegetation, or give the same away, with or without its rind, skin, seeds, juice, pulp, pith and pips, anything herein before, or hereinafter, in any other deed or instrument of whatever nature or kind, anything to the contrary notwithstanding."
Why can't he just speak English?
Pithy in Plainfield

Dear Pithy,
Put simply, your attorney was saying, "Thanks for your business, here's some fruit."

A friend of mine is fond of quipping, "Attorneys spend years and years going to school learning how to read and write...so that none of us can understand them."

The conspiracy theorists in us would likely agree that lawyers write this way because if they simply spoke in plain language, no one would need their serivces.

Linguists: "Legalese is a distinct dialect"

One reason this had come about is that legalese has not evolved in step with modern English. Language constantly evolves with daily useage. However, legal lanugage has been conservative and somewhat static. Legalese uses outdated grammar and sentence structures, improper or non-standard puctuation, passive voice, and awkward pronoun references.

Legalese also clings to foreign words, especially Latin.

So the question remains: Why do lawyers use legalese?

The answer: Tradition.

Lawyers are trained in an apprentiveship system and face powerful pressure to conform to the conventions and expectations of the peer group and its use of language. Young lawyers are introduced to the secrets of the guild by the older lawyers.

For their arguments, lawyers traditionally rely on precedence-- cases and documents that have worked before. Reading cases written hundreds of years ago means lawyers absorb and adopt those ancient styles and words, by a kind of literary osmosis.

The seedy history of legalese

For a long time lawyers were paid by the word, or according to the number of pages they produced. Practices like using wide margins, grossly excessive numbers of words, or adding recitals and preambles to documents, were all the rage. The longer and weightier the document you produced, the more you got paid.

The courts tried to curb the increasingly extravagant length of documents. For example in 1556, an offender had stretched a 16 page document to 120 pages by using repetetive words and ridiculously large margins. As punishment, the court ordered the documents hung around the offender's neck. Even today, there is a plain language movement gaining momentum in law schools.

KISS your legal bills goodbye

In most cases, you should follow the KISS model when drafting your own contracts and agreements. Speak in plain English, and simply state your desires. By Keeping It Super Simple, you can create documents that you and your associates can read without an attorney to translate.

Donna Fox, Esq.

I'll be brief

2005-03-17T18:23:00.000-06:00

I'm Donna Fox, Esq.

I've been writing a column called Ask Auburn: Real Answers to Theoretical Legal Questions for some time now. Finally, I've decided to Blog the column.

I'll start by publishing a few back issues, however, if there's a question you'll like to have featured in a future edition of Legal Briefs, send me an email!