Licensing out trademarks and getting royalties

M

mpbiz

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Apr 29, 2010
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How is it possible that someone owns the trademark term "all natural" in the pharmaceutical/supplement category, yet tons of supplements have the words "all natural" on their bottles?

Shouldn't they have to pay a royalty fee? The reason I'm curious is because I've had this brand I've wanted to put together for awhile now, but recently I started thinking about how much easier it would be to just scoop up trademarks, go to already established companies, and license out the trademark term to the top 3-4 players.

This idea came to me while watching sharktank the other night. Some douche had a cologne that smells like money called "Liquid money" and none of the sharks cared about his line of cologne, but they were interested in licensing out the trademark.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience when it comes to this? Someone recommended me One Simple Idea by Stephen Key but from what I've seen so far online it looks like he deals more in patents.

Sorry for the long ass post hopefully some of you guys are interested in this stuff as well.
 


Interesting idea. Perhaps you could find someone who has done this before to mentor you.

Sounds like the ultimate passive income to me...
 
I see trademarks and patents as more of a "leverage" type move. Big companies use them to bully smaller companies and tie them up in court so they can't get off the ground and compete.

If you have the capital and good lawyers to attack these larger companies, it could be worthwhile. Otherwise, these large companies legal teams will likely trump anything you are able to dig up on them.

BUT, you could get creative and pin two companies (which are both representing some big brands) against each other and sell the trademark to the highest bidding company, which then in turn could enable them to tie the other company up in court. ;)
 
craigmc said:
Interesting idea. Perhaps you could find someone who has done this before to mentor you.

Sounds like the ultimate passive income to me...
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping to achieve with this thread. I'm going to try some intellectual property law / trademark specific forums and hopefully get some more info.

If anyone is also interested in this just PM your skype or aim and we can mastermind on this.
 
Gambit said:
I see trademarks and patents as more of a "leverage" type move. Big companies use them to bully smaller companies and tie them up in court so they can't get off the ground and compete.

If you have the capital and good lawyers to attack these larger companies, it could be worthwhile. Otherwise, these large companies legal teams will likely trump anything you are able to dig up on them.

BUT, you could get creative and pin two companies (which are both representing some big brands) against each other and sell the trademark to the highest bidding company, which then in turn could enable them to tie the other company up in court. ;)
Click to expand...

You know what I probably should have mentioned this, but the trademarks i wanted to scoop up aren't being used at all. So it would be a completely different situation where the little guy holds all the marks but doesn't have the capital to do anything with them.

I don't want to send them a C&D or something and try to bully them out of money. They would just laugh.

I want to scoop up what they need before they know that they even need it. Then go to them and negotiate a royalty rate in exchange for handing over the IP.
 
If trademark isn't defended, it is lost. If anything such as patents, the United States is first to invent, not first to file. I would hope you have a bankroll for lawyers.

Edit more information

IV. Clearing Your Trademark

A. Are you first?

1. Trademark rights are granted to the first to use the trademark and/or first to file a trademark application.
 
kneedeep said:
IV. Clearing Your Trademark

A. Are you first?

1. Trademark rights are granted to the first to use the trademark and/or first to file a trademark application.
Click to expand...

Yes. I would be the first to file in specific categories.
 
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