Tim McDermott “Trademark Tribulation”
Trademark Tribulation. This could get you into a lot of trouble.
Some of you remember the old radio seminar days we used to have in Nashville. We would hear about a radio station with a great slogan or identifier or promotional campaign and then we would go back to our stations and copy it. If it worked for them, then we wanted to see it work for us. They came to share, right? The old cliché was “whoever steals from me steals twice” meaning that most of our ideas came from somebody else.
Well – that’s changed.
As time has gone on, stations are more concerned with their branding and not being confused with another organization. Organizations spend a lot of time and money developing ideas and the thought of someone taking it for free gives them a lot of concern. “Thou shalt not steal” made God’s top 10 and when you use that idea without permission, it really is stealing.
I am not an expert in trademark law (nor copyright law), so this is not legal advice. I just have thoughts from what I have learned – mostly the hard way. Here are some:
1- Before you do anything, see if someone else is doing it. There’s this new thing called the Internet and AI where you can search and see if the idea is out there. A trademark attorney can be a great resource. They can check to see if the idea – or one similar to it – has been trademarked. If you know someone else is doing it, call them and ask them if they trademarked it. If they haven’t, you might ask them where they got it from.
2- When you have something trademarked, you are required to protect it. This means that if you see another station taking your billboard idea that you have trademarked and uses it in their area, then you need to let them know to stop using it. I had to do that several times. It’s not a fun conversation.
3- Check with your insurance broker to see if you have trademark coverage. If you don’t, ask them about how much it would cost to add it. That way, in the event you mess up and inadvertently cross the line you aren’t caught up in an expensive legal dispute.
4- If you do a marketing campaign and ask for outside help from a marketing company, make sure it’s clear who owns what. Sometimes marketing organizations will donate their time, but the idea belongs to them – so they can trademark it, not you.
5- Hire a trademark attorney. It’s worth it. Someone who knows trademark law. There might be a lawyer on your donor list who practices in this area. Get to know them. Run ideas by them. You can pay a little now or risk paying a lot later.
Tim McDermott is the CFO at Far East Broadcasting. He has been in broadcast leadership for over 40 years and can be reached at tmcdermott@febc.org
