There's that 90% failure rate, and I'm not exaggerating that, that's an actual number.
But then separate from that, there are certain ways that you can make companies have a stronger
likelihood of success.
And I know, and a number of us IP attorneys know as a fact that IP is a major factor,
like major factor.
You can stop people from competing with you, you can take over markets, you can license,
you can literally, you could sell a patent, just like, you don't even have to make anything,
you could sell a patent.
And for those of you that have like relationships with God, you know, it's not just the, the
thing is not just here the idea, it's what do you do with the idea?
There's a second part to it, like, people often like get this, this idea comes to them
in a dream, and I just feel moved to tell you guys this, because it's just important.
So some people get this idea in a dream, or they'll get a vision or something, it just
comes to them and they go, oh my gosh, I got this great idea.
So then they go on Facebook and they blah, like they just spew it all out.
Like I got this, the greatest name ever, I'm going to actually get, I'm going to use this
name for my business.
And then they go to do a domain name search, and they find out somebody actually bought
it.
And it was one of the people that they actually, it's actually on their friend list.
Like, I know as a fact that a major leader in a major network was as a conference, his
own conference, mentioned one of the trademarks that he's going to be using, and somebody
in that audience bought the domain name for the exact same trademark.
I kid you not.
And I'm thinking, how could you, like, how could you have that level of dishonor in doing
it?
It's just so, I can't even understand that.
But that's what they do.
But if you can lock it down, or at least determine, all right, now I got the idea.
So now the question is, well, what do I do with it?
So now get back in the secret place and start determining, like, you know, thank you for
this great idea.
What do you want me to do with this?
Like, what is important about this?
Where am I supposed to use it?
Should I build a company around it?
Or should I sell it outright to another party?
Should I get a patent on it and license it?
Should I, like, call up this person and give it to them?
Like, find out.
Don't just take the idea and then assume things.
Because the thing is, I can tell you from my own life, and this always happens, Larissa
and Ray will tell you this, on days four and five, it ends up getting very spiritual.
Like, we just start going down that route.
It always happens every single time.
So there's a difference between having something and actually prospering with that thing, right?
What do I mean by that?
So I get this idea.
If there's wind behind that idea, it's going to explode.
It's going to take off.
It's going to do really well.
Doors will open.
The right partnerships will align.
All of a sudden, you're just like, oh, like, everything's aligning.
You're like, I don't understand.
How could I be doing so incredibly well when I'm not working that hard, right?
And that's one of the examples of what happens when you come into alignment with what you're
supposed to do and when that thing is blessed, right?
I mean, I'll just tell you real quick in one minute, my biggest year financially, I physically
was feeling horrible.
And I did very, very, very little to no client development that entire year.
And I brought in like $2.8 million.
Like $2.8 million that came to the law firm.
I didn't go home with that.
That would have been nice.
But that actually went to the law firm, $2.8 million, highest originator in the firm.
And it was in a year that I physically was feeling absolutely horrible.
Not doing client development, not going out to the office, nothing.
It's as if God said to me, you know what?
I'm the reason why you're successful.
I'm the reason why you have a law firm.
I'm the reason why you got clients.
So why don't you just relax for a little while and let me do it?
And that year, I was more successful than I've ever been like in business.
So it taught me a lesson.
It's not, it's not, should we work hard?
But it's not just about working hard.
It's about working wise, knowing exactly what you're called to do,
and then aligning to that.
And that's one of the things that we try to do.
As I mentioned to you guys before, and the foundation is an IP thing.
We try to focus on where you're supposed to go.
And if we hear, you know what?
That doesn't make sense.
Like this, this is not where you're supposed to go.
We just let you.
you know, and then it's your call, you know, you do whatever
you want. But at least we help you figure that out. So, all
right. I'm gonna I'm gonna stop on the spiritual aspect for a
second here. And actually, on the last day on day on day five,
I actually pray over everybody's business before we go. Because
whether people go forward with me or not, I just want everybody
to do well. It's really important. So alright, so we
have covered so far, trademarks, copyrights, patents. Now, we've
covered this at a very top level, as you can imagine,
there's exponentially more, like exponentially more. I mean, as
an example, after you file a trademark application,
something's gonna happen. It's either going to be allowed, or
it's going to be rejected. And if it's rejected, you're going
to get one of several different rejections. One of those
rejections is that your trademark is what's called
merely descriptive. Okay, that's one of them. Another rejection
is that there's a likelihood of confusion between your trademark
and another trademark that already exists. That's the second
type of rejection. Okay. So that's called a likelihood of
confusion rejection. But then separate from that, you could
also get a rejection where the examiner comes out and says,
you know what, the list of goods and services that you have, they
don't really fit correctly into the goods, or they don't really
fit correctly into into this international class that you
listed. So we want you to take these items in your application
and put them into this class. And those items in your
application and put them into that class. And then they make
you pay an extra fee for the extra class. Okay, that can
happen. Another rejection that you can get is they can come out
and say, hey, you know what that that trademark application
application you filed, we didn't find any prior art, or we didn't
find any other, any trademarks where there's a likelihood of
confusion. We don't think it's merely descriptive. But we just
don't like what you said. I've seen these rejections, guys,
it's kind of tacky, like, we just don't like the way you said
it. So we want you to now go and change the words. We don't like
the word slippers, we want you to put in footwear, we don't
like the word, you know, I didn't even know this. As an
aside, did you know that there are boating shoes? Did you know
boating shoes existed? Are you serious? Am I the only person
that didn't know there was such a thing as a boating shoe? Maybe
it's because I grew up in the projects of Brooklyn where there
were no boats. And you know, and some of us didn't have shoes.
Right. So I'd never even heard of boating shoes. You guys
actually, man, you got some rich people in here if you know what
boating shoes are. So I didn't even know those things existed.
Or, you know, climbing shoes. I didn't know that. Because my my
youngest daughter, Sierra is a rock climber. And you can tell
because she's got these guns like, like, she's got massive
biceps and her back is like, rock solid. And so she could beat
me in rock climbing very easily. You know, so I won't tell her
that, though. She's not here. But uh, so so they may just not
like your description. And so what happens is they'll come
back. So don't here's what I'm saying to you. Don't freak out.
After you file something, a copyright application, a
trademark application, a patent, there's there's a decent
likelihood that you'll get rejected. All right, this is not
an attack on who you are as a person. Okay, so it's just that
legally, there's an issue. And so at that point, you might say,
Oh, man, I got to get a lawyer to look at this. Because there's
some legal arguments. I just don't know how to, I don't know
how to, how to address a merely descriptive argument. Like, how
do I prove that it's not descriptive. And you may need a
lawyer to argue case law and provide actual federal district
court cases in a legal argument to get your case allowed. Right?
That's possible. That's not a big deal. Don't worry about it.
You can handle it. It's not that big of a deal. Okay. But what I
will what I will tell you is a lot of people approach lawyers,
and they don't know how to work with lawyers. So I want to take
a minute and just kind of talk about this. Because any of you
that are entrepreneurs, who have never had experience with
working with lawyers, you need to learn this. Okay, a lot of
people are terrified of lawyers.
And so since they're terrified of lawyers,
you get a lot of, yes, okay, yep, okay.
And like no discussions, like no, as an example,
how many people here, when you bought your first house,
how many people here saw the house and said,
I'll take it for the exact cost
that was listed on the house?
Anybody?
Anders, are you serious?
You bought it for the listed price?
That's hilarious.
So there, it's rare that somebody will actually do that.
What you typically do is you negotiate.
Like you say, okay, well, you know,
I see your listed price.
I'm not gonna spend, like on our lake house, you know,
I saw the lake house in a dream.
I say, look, we're not gonna pay that price.
And I literally received the number
to reveal to the person and I did.
And I even told them, I said,
I don't mean to insult you.
I know your house is worth even more
than what you're listing,
but that's not what I'm authorized to offer.
And I told him what I meant by authorized to offer.
And he respected it.
He completely respected it,
but then he came back and said, but I just can't.
I can't take that.
I said, I completely understand.
Just know the offer's there.
And in the end, we settled at a number
that was over $300,000.
No, about $300,000 less than his original listing price.
That's remarkable.
I mean, that is remarkable
that you know God was involved.
Like there is no way that, no way.
And literally like within two weeks, no, not two weeks.
So I let them stay for a few months extra
because they were older
and they were moving to North Carolina.
So I said, you know what?
I own the place, but you could just stay.
I'm not gonna move in until the spring.
And it was winter time.
So you can stay another three months.
I don't care.
And they did.
They didn't pay anything.
I just covered everything for them.
And then they moved down South.
But just, I guess my point in mentioning all this stuff is
you can work remarkably hard on something
that you're not called to do and only get so far.
You're just not gonna get very far, right?
Whatever man does by himself or herself,
man must maintain by himself or herself.
That's something to remember.
What you do alone, you have to maintain alone.
Now, if you're, if God is like inspiring you
to do something, that means he's backing you up.
And so that thing's got fire on it
and that thing's gonna take off.
So the only thing you gotta figure out is the timing.
Don't forget the timing aspect.
There's a big thing about timing.
So it's like, there's the right time to open the business.
There's the right time to build the partnership, right?
So you gotta figure out the timing.
You gotta get back into that secret place and hear
what's the timing that I need for this thing.
That's really important to understand.
I mean, some of the secrets to my success is number one,
honestly, I admit it's not me.
This is not me.
Like it's not possible for it to be me.
And that really, really, you're letting,
look, I just feel really, I don't know why I'm led
to talk about this stuff with you guys right now,
but some of you must need this.
Is this helping anybody?
I'm just kind of curious.
It is?
All right, so then I'll, I'm just gonna continue
in this for a second, all right?
For those of you that this is doing nothing, don't worry.
We'll cover some more IPO stuff in a second.
But I'm really being pushed to do this.
So I got to share it with you guys.
So for the acceleration of a business,
for the success of a business,
for the growth of a business,
there are multiple things that are really important, right?
There are the actual tools behind the business, right?
Actually the skillsets that are necessary.
But I can tell you as a fact,
I have seen people with zero skillsets do remarkably well.
And I mean, remarkably well,
because they were just obedient
with the guidance they were receiving.
And they got the timing down, okay?
So there's first hearing the voice,
actually knowing what you're called to do.
Number two, coming to agreement with it.
But number three, please remember the timing.
Like if you're three years old
and you had a dream to actually buy a car,
that doesn't mean you buy the car
and you try to take off with a Ferrari,
because it just doesn't,
that I'm pretty sure that wasn't the calling, right?
So there's a timing.
So as a business owner, as a business developer,
yeah, skillsets are important,
but even more important is to hear the voice
that you're being called,
that's actually coming to you and saying,
hey, this is the idea.
This is what you're supposed to do with it.
These are the people you're supposed to work with.
This is the timing.
You get those things down.
I'm telling you, I don't care if your IQ is 500.
You're going to do very well.
Very well. Just keep that in mind.
I'm giving you tools to excel in the business world,
but there's a whole other side to this that's really important.
All too often, I see people,
they think to themselves,
well, I've got spiritual gifts and then I got business gifts.
Ray, why in the world am I talking about?
This has nothing to do with IP.
I'm on this vein.
Because every time we
connect in with a great group of entrepreneurs,
there's always some aspect of this where there is so much creation
happening and so many things that are being, I think,
released out into the world that need to happen.
That's so much more than just the logistics of the law,
because the law is really within a certain parameters,
but you work beyond that,
they're working beyond that.
It ends up coming to,
we have to get right 360.
It's got to be in all directions.
Yeah.
Everything, the mindset and the spirit matter to what you're bringing.
All right. Well, I'll just continue this one point so guys get it,
so everybody gets this.
If you can honestly,
if you hear an idea,
if you receive an idea, dream, vision,
whatever the case may be,
inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
you're like, oh, there's the idea.
That's why I need to do it.
Now, I'm giving you the tools to protect it if necessary.
But what you also want to know is what you're supposed to do with it.
That involves going back and hearing the voice again.
If you want to hear with clarity,
start with Thanksgiving.
There's a sequence.
I'm telling you, look,
God is not an equation,
but I can tell you that there's certain things that he likes really well.
I know from experience,
I don't know if you guys noticed,
I'm an ordained minister.
I don't go around telling people this,
but I would actually lead healing groups in ministry.
I did this once.
I'll share this with you guys.
I feel like it's good to share this with you guys.
It was a healing service.
This was a healing service.
I've seen hundreds of people healed,
like legs grow, eyes open, ears open,
like things that would blow your mind,
like completely blow your mind.
Well, I have this healing service.
There's about maybe 30 people in it.
I clearly hear from the Holy Spirit,
I just want you to give thanks for a few minutes, nothing else.
Don't pray for anybody.
Just give thanks, nothing else.
So I told the people in that moment,
and I promise you this applies to your business,
and I'll show you.
I told the people in that moment,
I said, guys, I'm being told to tell you
that for the next four minutes,
you are to give thanks out loud,
speak out loud your thanks,
and anything that you do not mention, all right,
I want you to speak out your thanksgiving
as if anything that you miss within those four minutes
will not exist tomorrow,
anything you don't give thanks for.
That room, I'm not making this up, guys,
that room within like 20 seconds became so thick
with the presence of God,
healing was manifesting everywhere.
I had not prayed for one person.
That room, I'm telling you,
like people were like getting dizzy,
like getting just feeling the,
and I can feel, I'm just talking, my hands are buzzing.
Like literally, like all they, and all they did,
this is what they did.
Now this is all making sense to me.
I'm like, Lord, why are we so far ahead
from where we typically are when we do the challenge?
And this is why,
because this had to be released for this group
for some reason.
All we did was, and you can hear it in people,
they're like, thank you for the food.
Thank you for the water.
Thank you that I could take showers.
Thank you for my home.
Thank you for my job.
Thank you for my wife.
Thank you for my son.
Thank you for my health.
Like they were saying it as if whatever they missed
within those four minutes was gone.
I don't think we got past a minute and a half.
Like we were just so full
and people were being healed left and right.
It was so powerful.
And so what in the world does this have to do with business?
Honestly, some of you were like, what?
What does that have to do with business?
I'm here to tell you everything, everything.
Even people that do not believe in God will tell you
that when you give thanks, when you focus on the positive.
they see the outcomes. Tony Robbins, he talks about this stuff himself. You've got Harvard medical
tests that are being done that actually prove that people are being healed when they focus on
the positive. And they're like, I don't understand why it works. There's a reason why it works.
They're just missing the full equation. So what I'm telling you is in your business,
when you get this identification of an idea, you go, oh my gosh, that's a brilliant idea.
Wow. Very first thing you do give thanks. Second thing, don't move. What do I mean?
All right. These door, man, we're going deep. I'm not going to apologize for this. I'm not
going to apologize for this guys. So, all right, look, these doors open in the spirit.
Okay. Literally, man, I'm buzzing like crazy right now. These doors open in the spirit.
So if you receive an idea, all right, when that idea is released to you, you're hearing from God.
It's either an angel that's releasing it, Holy Spirit that's releasing it, whatever it is,
you're hearing that from God. All right. Things are released from the third heaven, go fight
through the second heaven, come to the first heaven. Don't worry about if you don't understand
what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter. You got the idea. Okay. It came to you. That's where
we are. We got the idea. Awesome. So now you're hearing what you don't want to do is stop hearing
when you're hearing. What most people do is they get really excited and they want to go and share.
I'm telling you, don't like stop, give thanks and focus on the idea that was just released.
And don't move, like don't move. Okay. A doorway just opened, an invitation just opened.
What if that idea was an invitation for you to receive exponentially more, but all you've seen
is the tip of the idea. You became so excited about the tip of the idea that you're not seeing
anything else that was going to be revealed. This is what happens. These amazing revelations
come and people don't get the full picture because they get so excited about the tip of
the arrow. They don't see the rest of the arrow. I'm telling you that what we receive most of the
time is like 2% of what wants to be revealed. So if you get this idea coming at you and you
start hearing it, that idea actually can be a doorway for you to go deeper. So focus on the idea,
shut everybody else out. If you got kids, go to your husband, go to your wife and say,
can you please watch the kids? I got to do something now. Something was just revealed
and sit there. And I'm telling you, it's going to happen because I've done it myself.
That one idea turns into a book, turns into a business, turns into like a revelation that is
huge. And you're like, how in the world, like all of a sudden, you know, the partners,
you know, the amount to invest, you know, when to invest it. You know, it's all opening. And
here's the beauty of this. Wow. We've got to, we got to save this recording. We're recording, right?
Yeah. All right. I got to share this with some other people that I know that are in business
that this could really help. All right. Here's the other thing. The revelations that you receive
in the spirit, our spirit. Okay. Don't worry if I lose you, just, just, just follow what I'm saying
and it'll work. All right. That's all that matters. It just works. Okay. So if you receive an idea
and you wrote it down in your journal, it's actually spirit.
Spirit has no timeline. Spirit exists outside of time. So what that means is you can now take
that idea and start focusing on it again with your soul, which is your thoughts, will and emotion
and tap into the spirit and get more revelation. The big question though, is, is, is, did the door
close? That's what a timing issue is so important. Sometimes things are revealed for a season for you
to do a certain thing. And you need to be obedient in that season. If you let them sit the wind
behind it, it's kind of like, like Michelle calls me up and says, Pete, on Wednesday of next week,
there's going to be this awesome is going to be, um, a storm. It's not going to be huge,
but there's going to be a lot of wind. There's a sailboat that Anthony is selling.
I know you've always wanted to go sailing and you've wanted to go really far with it.
The winds are going to be perfect for sailing. So call up Anthony. He's selling the boat now
by the boat, get it in the water. And then next week, Wednesday.
when the wind from that storm that's far away starts to come your way, you're gonna have an
awesome day of sailing. So now I go, you know what, that sounds awesome, but I don't know,
like, I don't know if I want to do that right now, right? So now that the window closes,
somebody else buys the boat. But God's so good, God says, you know what, the storm's still coming,
and the wind's still coming on Wednesday, so I'll bring somebody else into your presence to buy a
boat. I'm gonna give you another chance. So now you're like, oh, well, Shelly's selling a boat.
And like, I could buy from Shelly. And I'm like, I don't know. But then one day, I see Alina and
her smile. And I'm like, I'm gonna buy Alina's boat, because she got the best smile ever. So
now I'm like, boom, I go and I buy Alina's boat, right? Well, what just happened? Now,
I have the boat. The question is, did the storm come already, so that the wind that would have
helped my experience in the sailing would have actually been exponentially better, but I missed
the window. That storm was coming, whether I purchased the boat or not. So now I may not have
the wind behind it, that gives me what I need to have the experience that I want. But because of
the grace of God, I still got a sailboat. I just might not have the same experience.
You see that? So the timing and the doors opening and the people be aligning are there for you.
If you're just getting the tip of the arrow, go back in and just get more, get more, get more.
And this is kind of some of the stuff that we talk about more in the audit and stuff like that
for the people that are open to that. But in any case, what I just shared with you, I don't think
I've ever shared with anybody in a business environment. So there's something about you guys
that are here right now. There's some reason for this. So that's going to help you. All right. I
have no doubt because I didn't have any hesitation in sharing that with you guys. Okay. All right.
So let me, I'm going to drift into IP now a little bit. Because I think that that should
help you guys out some. So on the trademark side, well, what's going on? I'm seeing everybody
laughing right now. Let me see. Booker boat. Time to pull my book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually,
you know, prophetic words work the same way. You can go and you can grab them. You know what I
actually find? And I'll and then I'm going to jump back into IP. Something for you guys to realize
if you ever received a prophetic word, it's in the spirit. It, anything you hear from God,
try to obtain at least three things out of it. All right. Now that's not a rule.
That's not a rule. But if you think in your mind, yes, father, son, Holy spirit.
Right. But if you think in your mind, God is tri-part, then try to think in your mind,
I should get three things out of this. So if you just get one revelation out of something that
a dream or like a prophetic word or whatever, and you go back in for at least two more things,
I'm telling you, you're going to get it. I'm telling you, cause I know it. I've got,
I've got books of words that people have spoken over my life and I've gone back and bam,
bam, like fire, like bam. So powerful. So just realize that those things are in the spirit.
They don't stop. You can get as much as you want. He says, I will give you as much as you want.
It's up to you. It's just up to you. Just go back and you can get a lot more. Wow. We just spent
a half hour tapping into the spirit. This is, um, that's pretty awesome. All right. All right.
Let me test base that a few other things for you guys. Um, some of you ask questions about
trademark notices. Okay. They said, do I need to use a TM or an R you're not going to get in
trouble for not using it. Cause some of you are, are concerned that, well, if I use a circle R or
TM, it's going to look bad on my product or it's going to look bad on my services. It doesn't look
pretty. Okay. Um, you don't, you don't have to use a circle RRTM. Uh, Sony, this is this by Sony.
Do you see a circle RRTM on there? Nope. It's very rare. Matter of fact, I can't think of any
situations that I've ever seen a Sony product with a circle R on it, but they're so big that
they don't care. They're going to sue you. And if you don't actually realize that they have one of
the most famous trademarks out of there, you know, out there, then it's, it's, it's your,
unfortunately it's your, your funeral, right? Cause they're going to sue you. So,
um, where can you grab the TM logo? What does that mean, Anthony?
Unmute.
You know, the TM, the trademark, and the circle, to put on top of it all.
Oh, the circle R?
Well, you've got the circle R, didn't you?
Isn't there a TM as well?
Yeah, so what I do for the TM...
Now, one of the guys here, one of the gals here, there it is.
Control-Alt-T.
Man, that's really good.
That's awesome.
Control-Alt-T? Okay.
Yeah, if you're on a PC, it's Alt-0153.
It'll allow you to add the TM up onto anything that you're...
Any of your word marks.
Okay.
Yeah, so there's that, and then the other thing I do for a TM is
I'll just type TM in capital letters and then make it a superscript.
That's it.
Yeah, and if you're in something like Word,
some usual Word processing are savvy enough.
You put TM and then, like, at the end of a word, and it recognizes it.
Parentheses are parentheses.
Parentheses see your parentheses in it, and it'll do it.
It does.
Yeah, it does.
If you go into Microsoft Word and you actually type open bracket C,
close bracket, it automatically changes it into the circle C.
Anthony, as a graphic designer,
like if you're adding it to an icon for a logo,
you can even just add text.
Like if you're in Photoshop, you add text, the TM, you size it,
the word, and position it where you want it to be,
and it'll be right there on your logo as well.
Yeah.
Ray does, like, a ridiculously brilliant.
She does really ridiculously brilliant work when it comes to, like,
ads and, like, you know, and website stuff.
And she's just really good on these things.
She just did a video for me that just kind of blew my mind.
Really ridiculously good.
So she deals a lot with the graphics.
So she knows a lot about, you know, where to place what,
what to do what, and how to get them in there.
And it's pretty cool.
So, but yeah.
So the whole point is if you're thinking to myself,
it's going to make my product look bad, then yeah,
you don't need to use the TM on a circle R,
but the problem is that you're not placing the public on notice.
So if you're going to try to say that, look, you know,
somebody intentionally infringed,
the other party could use the defense saying that they never knew.
Right. And so how does that play out?
If they never knew,
then perhaps the situation is that they,
they, they may have to stop in litigation.
Like a judge may render a decision saying, you know what,
you got to stop because they have a federally registered trademark,
but you're not going to get any damages.
And part of the reason why you want to, you know,
why you deal with these, these lawsuits is because you want to be
compensated for the infringement that's been done.
So if you're not using a notice and nobody knows that they're committing
infringement, then good luck getting damages,
which means you're spending all your money on your own attorney to try to
stop the other side. And you're getting nothing in return.
That's not a good business plan now for a company like Sony.
What legal counsel for Sony is going to do is say, are you serious?
Are you like from another planet?
Did you really not know about the Sony trademark?
Like, do you not read the newspapers? You not read the news?
Like, do you not watch television? Do you not see it in movies?
Like, do you not purchase anything? Have you never been in Best Buy?
Like literally like they'll,
they'll prove beyond a doubt that you knew about the Sony trademark.
Okay. So for that reason, they don't even use it.
Like they're so well known. Denon does the same thing, you know,
$5,000 audio receivers. They don't,
they you'll never see a circle are on any of their products because they don't
need to. But for you and I,
we're not really at that level of everybody knows the name. You know,
it's not like cheers. Everybody knows your name. Like, it's not like that.
Okay. Like, this is like, who in the world are you? Like,
that's more like us. So for that reason yeah,
that's going to be in the bloopers. So for that reason,
you've actually got to use the TM or the circle are.
So that's the reason why I would use that. Now in the patent world,
it's different. If you get a patent,
what you want to do is you do like P a T and O,
and then the number seven comma three, five, four comma. So that's,
that's what you would do. Okay.
Or you can type in, I just typed it in chat for those who don't know,
or you can type in patent number. Thanks.
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
whoops, whoopsie, there.
Or you can type it like that, okay?
But if you do not mark,
oh yeah, I'm gonna get there right now.
Yeah, very good Larissa, yeah.
Larissa nailed exactly where I'm going on this.
If you don't mark your product with the patent number,
to determine damages and infringement,
there has to be one of two things.
And I mentioned this on day one,
actual notice or constructive notice, one of the two, okay?
Now what that means is that you either need
to send them a letter saying you hereby infringe,
or you send them a letter that says,
hey, I've got a patent,
you may be interested in seeing this patent, right?
That would be actual notice,
because they were actually notified about this thing.
The other thing you can do is called constructive notice,
right?
So there's different types of notice,
but to have constructive notice,
you got to actually mark the product,
like put the patent number on the product,
or on the packaging for the product,
that's called constructive notice.
So damages can start from the point of constructive notice
or actual notice.
So if you're not putting the notice,
you're not putting the TM, you're not putting the circle R,
you're not putting the patent number on your products,
and I just send the letter over to Ray, right?
And I say, hey, Ray, you've been infringing my patent,
right?
And so I just like send it out,
that means the damages can only start from today,
instead of five years ago when I got the patent,
big difference in damages.
So like, why is that important?
I'm a patent litigator.
And so I've represented companies in Texas,
Massachusetts, Florida, Southern District of California,
New Hampshire, Connecticut.
I think those are the only places I've done it so far.
And I had a case where my client clearly infringed,
a hundred percent, zero doubt.
I even told my client, my client's like,
we just got sued, what do we do?
I said, well, step number one is I got to do an evaluation
and see if it's true.
I did the evaluation, call them up and said,
this is not good, like this, like we're in trouble.
I said, look, I'm good at what I do,
but I'm gonna have to like pull a miracle for you to win,
you're in trouble.
Like these claims are exactly on point.
So my client said, well, what do we do?
Like, I'm gonna have to spend like,
$2 million with you in litigation.
I said, no, you're not.
And they said, well, what do you mean?
I said, no, no, there's a way around this.
When did you find out about the infringement?
They said, well, when they filed the lawsuit against us.
I said, okay.
What's the product that's covered by the patent?
And they told me, I looked at the product
and there was no patent number on the product.
So the very next thing that I did
was I called opposing counsel.
And I said, I want you to call your client.
I'm gonna send you a letter along these lines,
even if you're right.
I'm not saying you're right, I'm not saying you're wrong,
but even if you're right, if my client does infringe,
your client's about to spend $2.5 million to make no money.
And they said, whoa, what are you talking about?
No, no, no, no, no.
We're gonna make a ton of money.
You've been selling like, you know, thousands of units.
Each unit goes for thousands of dollars.
We're gonna make millions off of you guys.
Like, you're delusional.
I said, show me where you've actually used the notice.
Opposing counsel said, no, we use the notice.
Of course we use the notice.
Like, everybody uses the notice.
I said, Brad, show me where you use the notice.
He's like, okay, like he knows me.
So he's like, something's up here.
Like, what's going on?
Said, I'll call you back.
I said, take your time, take your time.
You know where I live.
No, no problem.
Take your time.
No problem.
Took a number of days later, he calls me up, right?
And he's like, okay, what do you wanna do?
And I said, well, look, I'm not saying we infringe
or we don't infringe, but your client wants us to stop.
Right?
He says, yeah, but we want all the damages.
I said, you're not getting damages.
You're getting zero damages.
You never marked.
And we just found out about.
you guys, when you sent me a lawsuit,
you're getting zero damages.
I'll spend two and a half million dollars
to give you nothing.
I have no problem with that.
And then I'll cut a deal for my client
so they pay a fraction of that.
I'll just do it because it's fun.
And the guy's like, all right, look, look,
let's back up here.
I want you guys to like, you know, stop.
I said, done.
We'll stop.
You want to stop?
Done.
No problem.
He says, well, you gotta like phase out the inventory.
I said, done.
We'll stop the inventory.
Done.
I said, the client's onto other things anyway.
It's not that big of a deal.
We've got other stuff that they can do.
And I mean, it was kind of like,
it was kind of saddening to see the display
on opposing counsel's face.
But in any case, the result of that was
our client stopped.
They paid nothing, nothing.
And they thought I did a miracle.
I said, no, it's not a miracle.
What is a miracle is that they never marked anything.
But the fact that they never marked anything
means that there were no damages
because they never marked a single thing.
And you got, your actual notice was the day of the lawsuit.
And so technically they could have made
a couple thousand bucks because they had inventory
that was being sold.
So I said, technically they could make
a couple thousand bucks.
But the fact of the matter is they'll spend millions
with their own legal counsel.
They don't want to spend that.
So that's how we got out of the lawsuit.
So all of that to basically tell you,
make sure that you mark things properly.
Now let's talk about something called patent pending.
How many people have heard that phrase patent pending?
Yeah, a lot of you, right?
All right.
You cannot say patent pending until you actually file
something with the patent office.
If you say patent pending before you actually
have a patent pending,
patent pending doesn't mean I met with my lawyer
and my lawyer is taking forever to write it.
So the patent's pending.
That does not mean patent pending.
That is not the meaning of patent pending, okay?
Patent pending means I got something filed
with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
I've got a serial number.
Now I can say patent pending.
That's what patent pending means, okay?
Now here's the beauty of it.
If you file more than one patent application,
you can say patents, plural, pending.
If you say patents pending,
nobody knows if it's two or a hundred.
That's a really good strategy, guys.
A really powerful strategy.
If you want to hit the market in a very strong way,
you get a technology or a method that you file
a patent application on.
If there's a way to file more than one patent application,
you may want to do that because if you say patents pending,
it'll now scare the competition away
because they have no idea how many patents are pending.
Patents during the pendency phase,
they are confidential up to 18 months after filing.
So if you file today for a year and a half,
that patent will remain confidential,
meaning it will never be published.
At the 18 month period, your patent will be published.
But, but here's a golden nugget for you guys
that are writing patents.
If you're never going to do foreign filing,
like you're never going to file in a foreign country,
you can actually request non-publication.
This is a powerful strategy, guys.
This is a strategy that billionaires
and millionaires use, all right?
They file more than one patent,
and then they ask for non-publication
if they're not going into a foreign country.
Why?
Somebody tell me why you would do that.
Think strategically.
Just unmute.
Let me give you guys the ability to unmute.
It would be a trade secret then.
No one else would know how to make what you're doing.
Right, so nobody else would know about it.
That's correct.
You can't really say it's a trade secret.
You kind of have to make a choice.
You have to select, do I want to go after a patent
or do I want to go after a trade secret?
If you're filing a patent application,
you can't really say that it's a trade secret still
because you've disclosed it to a third party, all right?
So it's no longer being only understood
and received by people that are important
to the invention, right?
But you're on the right path, though, Michelle.
which is that nobody can see it.
That's the beauty of it, right?
So now if I file more than one patent
and I ask for non-publication,
I can actually maintain my patents as secretive
all the way up into the point of the patent
like becoming public domain, meaning like issuing.
Like I can keep everything confidential.
That's really powerful, guys.
Like there was a thing way back in the day
called a submarine patent, right?
And I don't mean like a patent focused on a submarine.
If they were called submarine patents,
the reason why is that people will wait for patents to get,
they will wait for the patent to get ready to issue
and then they would file a continuation, right?
They would never let the patent issue.
They would file a continuation, then another continuation.
They would never let the patent issue.
Wait till it's getting ready to issue,
file continuation, abandon the first one.
Then what they would do is they would look at the market
and it would say,
how many people are doing what's in the patent?
Oh, not enough people.
Apple's just starting to do stuff in here.
Patents getting ready to issue, file continuation,
abandon the first one.
They're maintaining the original filing date
but the patent never was publicly disclosed
and never issued.
They did it over and over and over and over
for years, eight, nine, 10 years, okay?
Because patents used to last for 17 years from issuance,
not 20 years from filing.
So they would do this for years, 10 years, 15 years.
This actually happened in the laser, in the laser.
Some of you will get that.
In the laser, in the laser area, okay?
So there were patents that were on the laser
but when the patent was gonna issue,
they filed a continuation.
They did this for years, 15, 16, 17 years.
Then when they saw everybody doing it,
they let the patent come up.
They let it issue.
Now everybody's infringing.
So they're making millions and millions,
millions and millions with the patent, right?
Millions, millions, right?
They're making millions on this.
Okay, yeah, I know, another blooper.
I see you, I see you, Ray.
All right, so what, she's actually literally
writing down the time.
She is, she's writing down the time on the video
so she knows where the blooper is.
Great, thanks, thanks, Ray.
It's timestamps because-
I'm in so much trouble, I'm in so much trouble.
So literally the patent issued,
now what they do is they send a notice letter
to all these companies that are doing
what's in their patent, instant millionaires,
instant millionaires, right?
That was called a submarine patent.
The government came out and said that this is not working.
This no bueno, right?
This is not working, right?
And so they said, no, we're not gonna allow this.
And so they got rid of submarine patents.
They said, patents only last 20 years from filing.
I don't care how many continuations you file,
you're still only gonna get 20 years, no matter what.
So basically I just kind of gave you a way
to take over the market.
You take another one patent and say, patents pending.
You can request non-publication
if you're never gonna do foreign filing.
And then nobody's ever gonna know about it
until you patent issues.
And you're basically scared keeping people away
from your industry while things are pending.
Very powerful.
I had a client recently reach out to me,
worked with another attorney,
didn't work out unfortunately for them.
Came to me and it was kind of unfortunate
because they had a bunch of publications
on what was in the provisional.
So now they had to refile the provisional,
but they can't refile the same thing
because it was already published.
So we had to find something new
to add to the original disclosure
so they could file a new patent.
So why am I telling you this?
If more than one year passes since you disclose something,
you may not be able to file on the same thing,
but you may be able to add something to the invention
and still get legal rights.
But your legal rights will only be on that new thing,
not on the old thing.
So to make this practical,
let's say you originally created a bicycle,
at least two wheels rotatably connected to a center mass
with a steering mechanism directly connected
to the first of the wheels,
which allows maneuvering to the left or the right
of the bicycle,
and some kind of acceleration mechanism
that harnesses physical power through the use of pedals
of an individual who's seated on a seat
that is removably connected to.
the center mass.
I just wrote a patent on a bicycle, right?
So that's a claim of it.
Let's say that's like your claim.
And you publish something on it and a year passes
and you go, oh, I never filed a patent.
Well, what if you realize I can add a motor to this thing
and create a moped?
Well, you can file a patent on the moped,
including the motor, right?
And a different kind of braking and acceleration mechanism
from the original bicycle patent,
but you can't file a patent on the bicycle
because it's already public domain.
That's how you get around situations
where somebody on your team or you disclose something
and you don't know what to do.
You just gotta find something new to add to it
that's not obvious and then you can file, all right?
All right, let me see if you guys have any questions
on anything that we've covered so far.
Over the last four days, you can cover any topic you want.
You're not getting billed 600 bucks an hour.
You can ask any question you want and I'll answer it.
Let's see if anybody has any questions.
Can you just tell me what's the benefit
of having the multiple patents
if they're not allowing the submarine patents anymore?
Yeah. You know what I mean?
Good question, good question.
So the benefit of having multiple patents filed
is that let's say you have two provisionals that you filed
and it's on cell phones, right?
And this is your cell phone right here.
That's your cell phone.
And for some reason, am I out of power?
No, it's still there.
Hold on.
There we go.
Now we can see the cell phone.
Away.
There we go.
Now you can see it works.
All right, so there's a cell phone, right?
Fiery lion right on the screen.
Okay, so this cell phone here is your invention.
So now you say on the back, like patents pending
or on the packaging for it,
you say patents plural pending, right?
It's not publicly known.
But now I, as a competitor of yours,
I make cell phones too.
And I see, man, I like that design.
I think I'm going to copy it, right?
I'm going to make my own.
I have a connection in Indonesia.
They'll work on the microchips, right?
Manufacturing.
I'll have it put together in China
and I'll make it cheaper than you.
And I'll take over the market
because I already have connections and contacts.
And I really like this idea.
So I'm going to just take it.
The fact that you said patents plural pending
means that I don't know if you have two patents
or 20 patents on this thing.
Yeah.
Right, Anders.
So I don't know.
I actually don't know.
And so it's going to scare me
away from copying this thing, right?
Now, if you say patent pending,
I know you've got one patent on this.
Am I concerned?
Yeah, I'm a little concerned.
But when you say patents plural,
that's a different ball game.
It's now, there are multiple patents covering this thing.
You may be able to get rid of around one of my patents,
but you're not getting around the portfolio.
This thing is mine, back off.
That's essentially what you're saying.
And that's when you end up taking over a market.
And the fact that you're maintaining it as confidential
means that nobody can access it.
So what that means to your competition is
I can't actually pull the patent online
and see whether or not I infringe.
I don't know.
So this is what actually happens.
There's a piece of property in front of me.
I want to get to the other side of the piece of property.
There's a sign that says there's land mine.
There's a land mine here, right?
And it's like a whole acre of land.
Now there's another piece of property.
This other piece of property is an acre long,
but it says land mines with an S.
I got to get to the other side.
Which piece of property am I going to actually walk on?
I mean, let's just think about this for a second.
Which piece of property are you actually going to walk on?
This guy says metal detector.
You are such a geek like I am, Anthony, like literally.
He's like, get the metal detector, boop.
He's going to be out there and kind of determine
whether or not it's there, right?
But the point of the matter is that
if you definitely have to get to the other side,
as a company, you want to compete against somebody
and you know there's multiple patents on one side
and you don't know what the patents say,
you're going to go down a different avenue.
It's just, it just makes you more successful, right?
It's way more powerful.
So, all right.
Does anybody else have a question or?
We'll close and then tomorrow we're going to have our last session for VIP.
Oh, and then on top of that, I know that there's one, two, three, four.
There's like four of you already that are actually in the, the, uh, foundations and IP package.
So if anybody else here has a question, let me know.
Cause like I said, at midnight, we close the door.
Okay.
Uh, Anthony, go ahead.
Question.
Yeah, this is, um, I don't know.
It's so much pertaining to patents and stuff, but, um, when you have a business name, you
see some people use doing business as the reason they using it doing business as is
that, um, because they've had legal trouble in the past, or is that just because, you
know, they want to change their name or, you know, I don't know if you have a good
question.
Good question.
So DBAs are not because somebody had legal trouble in the past because when you do a
DBA, somebody can actually determine from your corporate formation documents, what
company is affiliated with the DBA.
And they're still going to sue the other company, or they're still going to do
research to determine what company is it affiliated with.
And then if they find out it's, it's a bad company, they're not going to do business
with it.
Right.
So the DBA in and of itself doesn't for somebody who's really a smart business
person, they're going to get through the DBA pretty easily.
Right.
The reason why people tend to do DBAs is typically, I can tell you why they
typically do it.
It's because they have a corporation.
They don't want to form another corporation with a different name, but they have a
certain name that everybody's kind of getting to know really well.
And so they say, you know what, I have a corporate formation already as an LLC.
I don't want to create another corporation name for this name that people like.
So I'm going to actually just say, I have a DBA.
I'm doing business as this XYZ corporation instead of ABC corporation.
Right.
And so that they listed as a DBA.
That's one of the reasons why they do it.
There's other reasons for it.
I used to work for a company with a long name that they shortened in a DBA.
That is exactly very good, Larissa.
That's exactly the other reason is that they actually have a corporate name that's
very long.
And so other people know them as something shorter.
Right.
So let's say like my company is called Average to Elite Challenges.
Right.
My DBA might be A to E challenges.
It's shorter.
You know, I don't want to write average to elite challenges on everything.
So I say A to E.
So I do a DBA that has A to E on it.
So those are the two main reasons why people use DBAs.
Number one, they just don't want to form another company with a different name.
Number two, the name is just really long and they or they they got a nickname and
they don't want to do new corporate documents for the nickname.
OK.
All right.
And with that, we will close for day four.
Tomorrow's the last day, guys.
Tomorrow's the last day we will we're not going to be just so you know, the last
day for VIP is not going to be like really, really long for you guys.
So you guys don't have to stay for like, you know, a whole hour and 20 minutes
because I tend to go over.
It's not going to be like that.
It'll probably be more like 40 minutes or so.
I'll answer any questions that you have and then we'll close.
OK.
It's been a true honor working with you guys.
What is this?
Hold on.
Just get a message.
Oh, got that.
Yeah.
So sit with God tonight and get those questions to Peter at Nambia's at
elite-challenges.com.
This is your last chance unless you join the Vita Nations.
And that's my doorbell.
Exactly right.
And I know some of you actually had some questions, so I'm happy to do some
follow ups with you.
I know a few people today, like Maria and Jane, actually are interested.
And so I'm going to DM them and talk with them and see if we can figure
something out for them.
I like I said, I just want to see you guys be do really well and then hear
from you guys like six months down the road.
Oh, my gosh.
Look at all the things that are happening.
You know, so it's just it's a lot of fun for us to do that.
So, Ray, did I miss anything or can we close?
I don't think so.
OK, I mean, you missed that dance.
You just did, though.
I should have stopped the recording.
All right.
So with that, bless you guys.
Have an incredible evening.
Tomorrow's the last day where it's seven o'clock.
I know it's a Saturday, so it'll be a shorter period and then we will close.
So have a great night, guys.