Dan at CLB posted some good comments on trademark filing concerns. He is finding that with the economic downturn, some clients are cutting corners and perhaps making some poor decisions when it comes to PRC and U.S. trademark registration.

As someone with a much smaller readership than Dan’s and a blithe willingness to piss off prospective clients, let me use this opportunity to say that if a company or individual wishes to save a few hundred bucks by not filing a trademark when it is called for, then you’re on your own.

I know that times are tough and that legal budgets have been slashed. I don’t really care, but I am aware of this. But in many cases, we are really talking about a few hundred dollars to register a mark. Sure, if you want additional coverage for additional marks or for more products and services, or if you need to file in multiple jurisdictions, this can end up being very expensive. For many small start-ups, though, a single registration in one or two jurisdictions is all that’s necessary for the first year or so.

All those poverty stricken start-up guys out there are now saying “A few hundred dollars? That’s real money when you are building a company from scratch.”

To which I reply: bullshit. It’s one thing to say that in your opinion, you don’t feel that a trademark is all that valuable to your business. I can accept that. But to tell me that a few hundred bucks will result in your eating dog food? Sorry, I don’t believe it.

I’ve had lots of start-up clients over the years, including many expat guys with tiny operations run out of their apartments. These guys are really scraping by and live contract to contract, client to client.

And yet you always see these folks out there several times a week at the usual expat joints, drinking 40 RMB beers and eating 60 RMB burgers (these are the so-called “cheap” expats). Skip a few of those meals for a few weeks and you have the cost of your trademark.

So I’m instituting my new zero tolerance policy, or perhaps it should be called the no bullshit policy. If you have a good excuse for not filing a trademark for business reasons, that’s fine. If you are subsisting on noodles (that you cook yourself!) and Yanjing beer (for those of us in Beijing) and don’t have any cash, you get a pass.

For everyone else, stop using the penury excuse. I’m not buying it. If you can’t give up a few luxuries for the sake of your company’s freakin’ brand, please go away.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Intellectual Property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.