#152 – How to Get Amazon Brand Registry and a Trademark in Just Two Weeks!

Most of the hard work has already been done. You’ve found your product, done the keyword research and spent considerable money on the PPC. Now, you’re reaping the rewards with a first-page product on Amazon.

That’s a little bit like working hard to buy your dream car and leaving the keys in the ignition when you go to bed at night.

Today on the Serious Sellers Podcast, Helium 10’s Director of Training and Chief Brand Evangelist, Bradley Sutton welcomes back trademark expert, Anita Mar. She’s going to explain why a trademark and Amazon Brand Registry are the best, first line of defense when it comes to protecting the products you’ve worked so hard to establish.

Anita also explains two different ways that you might be able to get both a trademark and brand registry in under two weeks!

This is a must-listen episode for Amazon sellers.

In episode 152 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Anita discuss:

• 03:00 – A Trademark and Brand Registry in Two Weeks?
• 06:30 – Foreign Trademark Protections
• 07:15 – Brand Registry is the First Line of Defense on Amazon
• 09:30 – How Fast is the IP Accelerator Program?
• 11:15 – What Are the Differences Between the Two?
• 12:55 – A Trademark Checklist
• 16:00 – Why Are Trademarks Refused?
• 18:30 – The Privileges of Brand Registry for US Sellers in Europe
• 20:30 – Common Trademark Misconceptions
• 22:30 – What Are the Costs?
• 24:30 – Brexit Means that Your Protections Exit as Well
• 25:10 – Publish for Opposition?  
• 27:00 – How Long Does a Trademark Last?
• 30:00 – Filing ASAP is Important 
• 34:10 – Anita’s 30 Second Tip  
• 34:55 – How to Connect with Anita

Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don’t forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you listen to our podcast.

Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started:

• Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business.
• Ultimate Resource Guide: Discover the best tools and services to help you dominate on Amazon.
• Helium 10: 20+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say.
• Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation. 
• SellerTradmarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.

Transcript

Bradley Sutton: In today’s podcast, I’m going to talk about two different ways to be able to get brand registry for your Amazon account in under two weeks. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody. And welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the eCommerce world. And we’ve got back with us today, Anita, for the first time in a year, Anita from sellertrademarks.com. That’s a company that Helium 10 also helps to run. And we are having you on the show again, Anita, because something that is kind of universally and evergreen as far as importance for sellers is the issue about brands and trademarks. So, welcome back to the show. How’s it going?

Anita Mar: Oh, hello, Bradley. It’s going pretty well. Nice to have you back too. Nice to be back in the show after the Megathon which was pretty exciting. I’m very excited.

Bradley Sutton: Now, really quick. We were wanting to do this in person and we’re going to have you out to our office, but you kind of got stuck in Europe when this whole crisis started happening, right? You weren’t even able to fly back even if you wanted to.

Anita Mar: Yeah. I am still stuck. Unfortunately. I plan to go back now. We’re just trying to decide when and if it’s even worth going back now in the summer. So, it’s pretty funny. Yeah, I’m still in Greece. So it’s been more than two months now. Well, it’s almost three months.

Bradley Sutton: Do you have a place out there or are you having to stay at Airbnb or hotels over there?

Anita Mar: Airbnb, but we got a really good deal, obviously, because there are no tourists, but it’s– we’re in Athens and it’s an interesting city for the first three or four days. Maybe not for three months.

Bradley Sutton: Well then, your landlord must be happy. Cause I know a lot of Airbnb people out there are struggling.

Anita Mar: Yes. I think he’s happy. He was very happy when we said that we kind of missed the flights and now we’re going to stay, so yeah, he’s happy. But yeah, we like it. It’s a little bit unexpected, but not much really changed for me because I’ve been working from home anyway. So it hasn’t really affected me in any way.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Well, that’s good. That’s good. Now, usually, lately I wanted to start off the show always with a bang of big strategy. And actually I’m going to talk about that really briefly because you helped me on this, but since it was actually me, I think I can give some firsthand knowledge for one of our case study projects for Project X. I was thinking, okay, I want to be able to get brand registry on this account and what are the fastest way. So I went to you and ask you about that. And you had said that, Hey, if we actually do a trademark in Germany and choose the expedited, the method that we can actually get brand registry pretty fast. Now I sent you an email. I gave you all the information and paid for everything.

Bradley Sutton: And literally from the first day that I sent that email to you, I was able to get from you that German trademark in 12 days, less than two weeks. And then two days later, I had the brand registry because the cool thing about it is that once you have that German trademark, or whatever country you get the trademark in and you have that registry number, that’s all you need to go to Amazon to prove that you have that brand as a trademark and they can actually see it. They can verify that in the German trademark system, in the UK trademark system, et cetera. And so within 48 hours after I had that trademark, I actually did have brand registry 2.0. And that was really cool. So that’s kind of what I first wanted to talk about with you is that whole process of– first of all, why is it so much faster in Germany to get a trademark than it is in the US? Cause we’re not even talking about four weeks versus two weeks, we’re talking two weeks versus what? Eight months or six months as it takes here.

Anita Mar: I think the Germans they’re very efficient and they’ve always been, but sometimes it takes even less. We had instances when an owner took six to eight days, so yours was on the longer side. But usually they’re pretty quick. And I can tell you why, because the accelerated examination, not expedited accelerated it’s called, they put you in a different line. It’s like a special line, privileged line. So they review your file first. That’s why it’s so quick. Another reason why it’s so quick, because Germany is a different country from all other countries where we usually file from the– it’s different from the US, UK, European Union, Canada, Mexico, Australia. In a way that– in Germany, when your trademark is filed, it’s reviewed and then it’s registered right away. And after registration, it’s published for opposition purposes. So the process is reversed. In other countries, your trademark is filed, it’s reviewed, and then it’s published for position purposes and this period varies from 30 days in the US, to three months in the EU. So while your trademark is published for position by third parties, you’re obviously waiting and it’s just, the trademark is doing nothing. So in Germany they decided, okay, we’ll let you register the trademark, you’ll get the registration number. And then your trademark is published. So if somebody decides to oppose registration of your trademark, then you have to defend it. And if you don’t, your trademark will be canceled. Well, the good thing is that Amazon is not going to double check. I don’t think they even know that German trademarks are different. So once you have the registration number, you will get access to brand registry. And then even if it’s opposed by somebody and you decide, well, I’m not going to defend it. It will not affect your brand registry.

Bradley Sutton: Interesting, interesting. Now let’s just talk about if somebody is selling an Amazon.com, let’s talk about the foreign trademarks, because obviously Amazon views it as a valid trademark. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to enter German trademarks or UK trademarks to prove that you have a trademark in order to get brand reach. But as far as from the protection standpoint, are you protected here in the United States even though you have a German trademark, or is there no difference as far as that goes legally?

Anita Mar: Well, legally, you’re protected in a way that you are in the brand registry. So once you get access to brand registry, you get access to some additional features and one of them is having your own storefront. So, when a hijacker selects a listing to hijack, the first thing they check is whether you have a brand registry, so they click on your brand name. And then if it goes into the storefront, they see that you’re in the brand registry. If it goes to some random general Amazon page, they know that you are not in the brand registry. So even this little thing really helps to minimize the number of hijackers because they tend to avoid listings that are in the brand registry, obviously, because they don’t know if it is UK trademark, German one, or a US one. They don’t want to spend their time on sourcing the products and hijacking the listing when they can hijack a different listing that’s not in the brand registry. So from this point of view, it really helps if you have no time to wait or if you just– for some reason you cannot file a US trademark. Of course, if you sell in the U S you should have a US trademark. There is no question about that because only US trademark will fully protect you. If you want to sue somebody for trademark infringement, you really need a US trademark. You can’t rely on German or UK one, but it’s a good solution if you can’t wait. If for some reason you can’t register in the US, maybe there is a similar trademark already, or maybe you already go the refusal. Or, maybe you don’t want to wait, or maybe there are some other reasons, like strategic reasons why you don’t want to file in the US. So yeah, in this case, it’s a pretty good solution. We’ve been quite happy. We used it for over a year now with Germany.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. So the main benefit is it’s not going to help you really selling on Shopify, or you can’t take somebody to court in the United States for infringement of a German trademark. But it’s mainly on Amazon since Amazon gives you the rights to your brand through brand registry even with a German trademark, or UK, or et cetera.

Anita Mar: Right. And sometimes, it’s a cheapest solution to– as I said, some people cannot file on the US for whatever reason, Or don’t want to wait, or maybe they want to file two trademarks. In this case, it’s a good solution. We’ve been happy that we found it because Germany is the fastest country. It’s definitely faster than the UK or EU Mexico, or Turkey, or United Arab Emirates. So all of those countries accept, but they’re much slower.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now what I also did at the very same time almost as I started to get the trademark with you was I went through the IP accelerator program for a different brand, just to try of– almost a fast and furious test of a drag race between two cars, street cars. But I started the process where I emailed somebody and then they went through the process and I got that one also in about 12 to 15 days where I was able to get the brand registry. So it was almost exactly the same amount of time as it took the German trademark. However, that’s with the US, but the US trademark is not a full trademark yet, but that’s the difference about an IP accelerators that you can get brand registry, even though it’s not fully registered yet. But from a protection standpoint, both of these brands, obviously I now have brand registry, but is there any difference as far as one giving me more protection over the other, or vice versa at this moment in time, when in which I still don’t have a fully registered US trademark?

Anita Mar: No. There is– we pretty much get the same brand registry with the IP accelerator or with the German trademark. Well, would I be accelerating? Like a few things that I don’t know if you are aware, one of them, the difference is with a German trademark. So, let’s say you apply for brand registry and you get access. And then, let’s say you decide to open another listing a month later. So your current brand registry will extend to the new listings with IP accelerator. So once you apply for the brand registry, it’s only granted for the specific listing that you have at the time of applying for the brand registry. So if you launch any other listings, they will not be part of that brand registry. And I don’t think many people are aware of this limitation. So that’s– I think is quite significant. So, I don’t know, some people have a lot of listings and they sell under the same brand. So they have different variations or different products that sell under the same brand. And they keep adding new listings. They keep launching them. That’s one of the differences. The other thing is that with IP accelerator– because it’s so new, we don’t know how Amazon will treat it six months later. They said they are going to check the status of the US trademark. And if it’s not registered, or if the market’s refused, they’re going to kick you out. So I’m a little bit cautious about that as well because they are going to go back and they are going to check the status and what happens then we don’t really know. Other than that, it’s pretty much comparable. Yeah. But I think that the limitation that you cannot add new listings with an IP accelerated trademark, that’s quite a limitation.

Bradley Sutton: Interesting, interesting. Now, just in general, regardless of if somebody is trying to get IP accelerator through Amazon or somebody’s getting a trademark through seller trademarks, one thing I noticed was that a lot of the questions being asked to me by your staff, and then by this IP accelerator stuff was very similar. In other words, they asked me for a logo, and when it was used, and then they also had similar concerns, like both were, Oh, I’m not sure if this is unique enough of a brand name. It was too generic. So you had said that it might affect it being passed. So, what are all of these things that somebody needs to keep in mind, regardless of how they’re going to go for their trademark? What are some things that people need to prepare. first of all, so if they’re already ready to go, as soon as they go to you, or to IP accelerator, and then also, what are some good things to keep in mind as far as the brand name that they’re picking?

Anita Mar: Yeah. I think one of the mistakes that people make is choosing a generic or descriptive name. Right now, for example, we see a lot of trademarks that have been filed for corona or COVID-19, for the trademarks that contain those two words. So they’re not very unique. And, maybe in two, three years down the road, they will have to get rid of them because they’re not going to be popular anymore or will be over that, hopefully. But yeah, when you choose a trademark, you definitely have to find the balance between the marketing, point of view and legal point of view because the trademark that’s good from the marketing perspective is not necessarily good from the legal perspective for your brand. You obviously want to find a name that describes the brand. But on the other hand, descriptive marks are not registrable. So here you have to make your trademark unique. You have to make it distinctive, and that’s not always easy. If it’s very distinctive, if it’s very unique, it’s not– it’s more difficult to make it stand out. And it’s more difficult for your clients to find you because they have to remember your brand name, and they will only remember it as you go big. So, when you pick the brand name, you have to do it with some vision ahead of you. Some of the good names is obviously Google or Microsoft, Samsung, right? These trademarks are very distinctive. They are very unique trademarks. Best Buy, for example, is descriptive. So usually this trademark wouldn’t be registrable because it describes best deal, right? So, picking a name like this is usually not a good idea, unless you are very big and unless you’re very famous, and unless you have sales in each state, and this is what happened to them. So they’ve become so big and so well known that people started to associate this name with them, rather than with them best deal. But for smaller businesses, you can’t always count on that, that you’ll become as big as Best Buy. So you have to find a name that has a balance of the marketing perspective and legal. So, you can pick one word that describes the products, and one word that’s distinctive, that will help you to make it registrable. So that’s always our advice. Don’t try to find the one word trademark. Go for two or three words. Yes. It’s longer, but it’s definitely going to give you an edge in the trademark registration process, and it will help your clients to remember the brand as well.

Bradley Sutton: Okay, interesting. So in your recent experience, what are some of the reasons that maybe a trademark was denied to be registered by the government?

Anita Mar: Well, usually a trademark is refused when they find something similar. When the trademark’s office does a trademark search and they find a similar trademark that was already filed. And of course, because we do comprehensive search before the filing, it’s part of our packages, we usually tell our clients, “Hey, this trademark is not very registrable.” But sometimes clients still want to proceed. They want to take that risk. And now the reason is that the trademark is descriptive. So, describes the products. For example, if you sell apples and you call your trademark green tasty apples, it’s not going to be registrable because it’s just descriptive, it lacks the unique component. And of course, if it’s descriptive, then yes, we tell our clients, if the mark is descriptive or maybe close to be descriptive. But if you already sell on Amazon and you have a listing and you have an active brand, rebranding means changing their brand name and changing– if you change the brand name, you may lose all the reviews and you will have to start over. So if the client is already selling under the current brand, rebranding is not always an option. So in this case, we can give it a try or we can recommend to file with an image, or we can try and file in the country that’s more laid back that will allow registration for descriptive mark, because they’re all different, right?

Bradley Sutton: Yeah. Okay. Now, obviously I know the answer to this because I did it with you, but for somebody who might be in the United States and they wanted to get a British trademark, or they want to get that German one, do you have to have VAT or a German entity or a company like that in order to get it?

Anita Mar: No, no. VAT is definitely not required. And you don’t have to have a local company because all trademarks that we filed through local attorneys. So their attorney will represent you and they will have a local address. So you don’t have to have a local company or a local address. It’s not a requirement.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. And, vice versa. What if now somebody has brand registry in the USA and they did it maybe through IP accelerator, for example, or even through seller trademarks. And they got actually a US trademark, and now they’re like, Hey, I want to sell in Europe, Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, Amazon France, et cetera. Can they use their US trademark to get brand registry in Amazon Europe?

Anita Mar: Yeah, absolutely. So it works both ways. You will get access to brand registry on all Amazon websites. But you will only be able to enforce your trademark if you have– and you registered trademark, for example, if we’re talking about Europe, so if we’re talking about France, you will have to have either a local French trademark or an EU trademark.

Bradley Sutton: So, a German trademark would count as this part of the EU then, right?

Anita Mar: Yeah, of course.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. So what about in other countries? I don’t have much experience in Amazon Japan or Amazon Australia, or now there’s Amazons all over the place. It seems nowadays. So have any of your customers talk to you about the process for getting brand registry in those countries or getting trademarks for those countries?

Anita Mar: Yeah. We just had a few clients who are interested to file in the United Arab Emirates. So we might begin filing there. The process there is so complicated. You have to notarize, to authenticate and legalize the power of attorney first in the US, and then you have to courier out the power of attorney to the United Arab Emirates. And then the attorney has to do the super legalization in the UAE again. So it’s so much extra efforts. In Turkey, we also had a client who used their Turkey’s trademark to get access to brand registry on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. We don’t really file a lot there, but we’re beginning to see quite a lot of interest in filing in the United Arab Emirates. I wish the process was easier because it’s just– even in China, it’s easier.

Bradley Sutton: Just in general, we talked about this a little bit a year ago, but there’s probably a lot of people who are listening now who didn’t hear that original episode, but just in general, what are some of the main misconceptions people have about trademarks– the process, or just what trademarks are? What are some of the most common misconceptions that people don’t understand?

Anita Mar: Yeah, some people– we found that some people think that you can only file a trademark in the US if you already sell in the US. While it’s not true, you can file based on future use. So you don’t actually need to sell anything in the US, but then before your trademark is registered, then you will have to start using your trademark. So it means you will have to start selling your products under your brand in the US. But yeah, some people don’t really realize that another thing that we noticed is that people don’t realize that trademark is always filed for specific products. So you don’t file an umbrella trademark for everything under the sun. You have to decide what products you will sell, and it should be part of a business plan anyway. And once you know what you’re going to sell, so select a product, and then we can file a trademark because it will attach to the specific products. Of course you can always launched new products and you can file an additional trademark for the same name for those additional products. But we can just file for trademark ABC for everything, just to take the name and make sure no one uses it. And another thing we noticed is that you– to make sure that trademark is enforceable and is active and is valid, you have to continue using it. So you have to continue selling your products under your brand. If you abandon your trademark, let’s say, if you close down the business, you pretty much lost your trademark, even if you still have it. And even if it’s still active, even if it’s still registered, it may be canceled for non-use because you abandoned it– that you completely closed down the business. So once it’s abandoned, it’s no longer valid, so anyone can challenge it and it will be canceled. Yeah, I think those are– they’re a few things that stand out.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Good to know. Now just– I’m sure another frequently asked question for somebody who’s not familiar with the process is they want to know how much it costs. So, let’s go to the most expensive option, which I would assume is that one that I did where I got the expedited service so I can get it done in two weeks. So. if somebody were to go to seller trademarks and say, Hey, I want to get this brand registry in two weeks. So I’m going to do this expedited in Germany, including the seller trademarks costs, including the government fees or– what’s a rough estimate about how much somebody is going to be out of pocket for that?

Anita Mar: Yeah. Let me tell you, so you will pay the professional fees and then you will pay the government fees on top of that. So the cost will be on the $1,500. That’s the total amount. So less than $1,500. I don’t have the exact number, but it’ll be rounded up. Because the government fees are paid in Euros. So they will be converted to the US dollars.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now, if somebody, where time is not important to them, what would be the cheapest option, including all those fees to– would it be the UK one? Would it still be the German one? Would it be US or which one is the cheapest?

Anita Mar: You can use the cheapest one. It will be under a thousand dollars and it will take around three and a half months in the UK. UK is actually very good trademark because usually what we found is that sellers, if they decide to expand outside of the US, they usually start selling in the UK because it’s also, it’s a pretty big market and they speak English there. So it’s a very useful trademark to have anyway.

Bradley Sutton: Now, how’s that going to work now, going forward because of the Brexit. So if somebody gets a UK trademark and they still want to sell in the other Amazon Europe’s places, they still need to get of France or Germany or another EU trademark?

Anita Mar: Yeah. So, because UK has left pretty much all trademarks that. So let’s say if you file in the EU, if it gets registered before the new year, before 2021, it will be valid in the UK. So they’re going to split the EU trademarks, and they’re going to add an extension. So if you have a trademark in the EU now, you will end up with two trademarks. One will be for the EU ,and the other one will be for the UK because EU will separate and spread out the UK trademark. And they will give it a new number, but for all trademarks that are not registered before the new year, pretty much you will have no protection the UK. And if you have a UK trademark, if you plan to sell on the EU, like in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, you need to file in the EU. So it will protect the other 27 countries. So it’s still a very powerful trademark. But yeah, the Brexit has messed up things a little bit.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Alright. Another question I think a lot of people have is part of the process is a little bit– people don’t understand this part of the process, but yeah, where it says published for opposition. So what does that actually mean?

Anita Mar: Yeah. So remember how I explained where Germany, how Germany is different because they have this publication after registration. So that’s exactly what it means. So after the formal review of the trademark is complete and after the trademark’s office has checked to make sure there are no similar trademarks that the trademark is registrable is distinctive. It’s actually not descriptive. It’s not generic. Then it’s published in a special journal or Gazette, how it’s called in some countries. And it allows third parties to say, “well, Hey, this trademark is similar to mine. I don’t want it to be registered.” So they raise their hand and they say, “I object, I don’t want this trademark to register.” So in the US, this period is 30 days and in UK, it’s two months, in the EU it’s three months. So it’s a limited period of time. During the week, third parties may decide that your trademark is too close to theirs, and then they can file an opposition. It involves paying fees to their attorney, paying some government fees as well. And you start the formal proceeding and it’s handled by the trademark’s office. And then you have to file a response if you disagree, obviously. If you don’t file a response, your trademark will be abandoned. If you don’t file a response in Germany, it will not affect the brand registry, because remember you have the registration number. If your US trademark is opposed and you don’t file a response, you lose the trademark. And then in some countries, the costs are pretty reasonable. Like in Canada, UK, EU, the costs are very reasonable. So they’re less than $10,000. In the US, the costs are very high. So it’s best if your trademark is not opposed, because it will be pretty expensive if it is.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now, how long does trademark last in the different countries? Like patents, we know when we had Rich Goldstein on there, last a certain number of years, and then you can never renew it, but how does it work with trademarks?

Anita Mar: Yeah, with trademarks in most countries, it’s 10 years. So, in every 10 years you can renew the marks. So pretty much they last indefinitely, but you have to remember to renew them. And what we found is when people file themselves, they often forget to renew them. So many trademarks become abandoned, because people simply forget about that renewal date, because it’s 10 years later, you think, Oh yeah, I’ll have plenty of time. And then of course you forget and you lose the trademark forever. But it’s 10 years in most countries.

Bradley Sutton: What if you’re about to go through the process. And you noticed that maybe some– that seller has actually jumped you and is trying to register your trademark. Is there anything you can do about it or only if you just happened to catch it within that opposition period?

Anita Mar: Yeah. And actually it happens quite a lot. We had a few instances in the last six months when our client’s listing has been stolen. Well, stolen in the way that it was put as proof of use in the US, and somebody filed for our client’s trademark in the US and they took a screenshot of our client’s listing and said that, that was proof of use of their trademark. And of course, sometimes it happens when people delay, we had a client who said, Oh, I want to see how it goes. And then she delayed for six months. And during this period of time, another person filed for the trademark. So when a client delays, it may happen, especially if the sales go well and you get some– you have some good reviews. Somebody may decide to do that. So in this case, yes, if you miss the position period, and sometimes you miss it, because if you decided not to file, you’re waiting to file, you’re not going to double check every month has anyone else filed, especially if they haven’t made the decision to file. So if you missed the position period, the only recourse that you have is try to cancel the mark. So you can file the cancellation proceeding once the trademark is registered. So it can be done. It’s more complicated, it’s more expensive, but it can be done. And usually your best bet is to hope that the other party will not respond when you filed the cancellation proceeding. And of course, you can write a cease and desist letter. Of course, that’s the first thing you’ll do if the other trademark is past the opposition stage, most likely they will ignore you because they know that you can’t oppose that trademark, but it’s still a good idea to write a cease and desist letter just to put them on notice that, well, “Hey, I noticed you. What you’re doing is not good. And that’s why it’s so important to file as soon as possible. We’ve seen so many times when people delay only to regret it later and they say “yes, I don’t want to spend money on trademark now. Our budget is limited.” And that’s happened that somebody steals your trademark and it’s been happening more often than before. I think with the rise of Amazon sales competition has become really fierce. So some bad people try to file for trademarks that belong to other people.

Bradley Sutton: So people need to be on the lookout. And that’s just another reason why you should not delay to get your own trademark. Now, if you don’t care about much about your brand, you’re just trying to always sell the next fidget spinner. That’s only going to be around for five months. Well, maybe it doesn’t make sense for you to get a trademark because by the time you get to the trademark, you’re already onto the next product, but anybody who’s trying to build a brand, or you want to have a sustainable product, pretty much everybody should consider getting a trademark. Right?

Anita Mar: Yeah. Again, there were so many benefits. We discussed it many times, but if, especially, if you plan to sell your business, the money that you spent on the trademark will double or triple or quadruple, because you will get more money for your business. Registered trademark will increase the value of your business substantially. And because it’s an asset.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Now, before we get into your 30-second tip for everybody, I want to play something we didn’t have the last time you were on the show and we call it the Search Volume game. So I’m going to give you three keywords. This is– you’re not necessarily an Amazon seller, but since you’re in Greece right now, stuck in Greece, I picked three keywords that have Greek in it. And then, I’m going to give you the three search volumes and you try to guess which one is searched for the most, in the middle, and the least. So the three keywords I’m going to give it to you in the order of the length of the keyword. One of these keyword is called Greek Oregano. One keyword is Greek seasoning. And one key word is plain Greek yogurt. Okay? Now the three search volumes, one of these keywords that I mentioned is searched for only 1000 times a month about, the middle one is searched for 3000 times. And the one that is searched for the most is 6,000 times. Now, keep in mind that I always do tricks in here. This is actual information from Helium 10, but it’s not always what you would think. So think about that. So again, Greek oregano, Greek seasoning, plain Greek yogurt. What do you think is search for the least to the most?

Anita Mar: I think, well, I’m not an expert in the keywords. I think the least search is Greek oregano. And then I don’t know which one should be the most searched. Are we talking about Amazon here?

Bradley Sutton: Yes. Strictly Amazon. These are searches that people do on Amazon.

Anita Mar: I don’t know. I don’t think they sell yogurt on Amazon. That would be new if they did. So I would say Greek seasoning is the most searched, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s plain Greek yogurt. I would be curious how they sell it though.

Bradley Sutton: I need your final answer here, Anita. You can’t say either one. You’re cheating.

Anita Mar: Yeah. I am cheating. It’s always never black or white. It’s gray. I would say Greek seasoning. That’s what I would probably search for on Amazon.

Bradley Sutton: Yes. The most then?

Anita Mar: I think so. Well, that’s my, yes. Right.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. All right. Anita, guess what? You are the fourth person out of 50 people to actually get all three, right. This is less than 10% get it right. Okay. So, I thought I could trick you because actually Greek yogurt, that keyword by itself, which I didn’t mention, is actually searched for 60,000 times a month on Amazon, but the way I put it was plain Greek yogurt is only searched for 3000. Greek oregano, you were right. That is the least searched. It’s searched for a thousand times. And Greek seasoning is 6,500 times. So, you are one of the very few who actually has got them all right. So, great job on that. Now let’s get now into what we call the “TST,” or T S T, thirty-second tip. Something about trademarks that you can say in 30 seconds or less that’s very valuable for our listeners to hear.

Anita Mar: Yeah. Always do a trademark search before you settle on the final trademark. Make sure that you have the domain name available, make sure that the social media handles are all available. Make sure that you don’t find any companies with the same name. So do some Google check, google search. And then the last step is do a proper trademark search in all of the jurisdictions where you plan to use the trademark or where you plan to sell. I think that’s the best tip I can give. You never file or never adopt a trademark that hasn’t been properly checked, domain names, social media, Google, company names, and availability of the trademark.

Bradley Sutton: Okay. Thank you so much, Anita, for joining us. If anybody wants to reach out to you, they can find you at sellertrademarks.com, and we need to get you, maybe if you’re okay with it in the Helium 10 users group. So maybe people can tag you in there if they want to ask general questions about trademarks. Is that okay?

Anita Mar: Yeah, I think I am there. You have so many.

Bradley Sutton: Perfect. Either FBA High rollers or Helium 10 users, make sure to tag Anita Mar and if she’s online, she’ll be happy to help you with your trademark question. So we’ll touch bases with you and maybe another year or so, Anita, to see what’s new with trademarks. How’s that sound?

Anita Mar: Sounds good. Sounds excellent.

Bradley Sutton: Alright. Thanks a lot.