You always have a right to represent yourself. Whether in court, doing business, or what have you. You may have the right, but the question is if you have the ability.
Let's take our latest example.
A fellow decided to use Legal Zoom to setup a company and then do a trademark. Legal Zoom is cheap after all.
Legal Zoom tends to give you (most of the time) what you pay for, and nothing more.
So he had Legal Zoom form Company X LLC. It now exist in the state and is in business. Easy enough.
But he then had Legal Zoom do a trademark application for him, and for some reason that has never been explained, the trademark application was created with the owner of the mark not being Company X LLC but a Corporation Y Inc. He claims they told him the application would be more likely to succeed if he used the name Corporation Y Inc for the application, but that makes no sense at all.
This is not a minor error, the name of Corporation Y Inc is impressively different and distinct from Company X LLC. Incs and LLCs are not the same thing either.
Corporation Y Inc does not actually exist. That is, as you may guess, a problem.
On top of that, he or they or both of them together also screwed up the application in regards to the specimen required for the trademark, which suspended the trademark processing.
So I get hired to fix the specimen problem and was not told of the ownership problem - of course not, why would anyone bother telling me that? - I found out about that after I was hired.
As soon as I find out, I point out the issue and ask what the heck is going on and the client has no proper answer other than he claims Legal Zoom told him that's how the application should be done. I note that fixing the ownership problem is a separate issue and needs an additional filling fee to the trademark office to fix as its a different matter altogether and a different correction you can't do at the same time you fix the specimen.
Since I fixed the trademark specimen screw-up, the application is going to be approved and the trademark issued - in Corporation Y Inc's name.
Client doesn't seem to understand, nor does he want to listen, that yes, he needs to fix this problem.
He doesn't get that he also needs to pay more to fix this, or that he will get a trademark that he applied for and will be issued a trademark that will be owned by a non-existent company which as a result would have zero value.
4 comments:
So he will have a trademark but because the owner doesn't exist it can't be enforced?
What fool suggested registering with a ghost owner? I'm guessing it was a Norm at the local bar, not someone with any legal background...
Rick R: Yes, he'll have a trademark owned by a non-existent company, so you're right there's no one who can legally enforce their rights in it until that is fixed.
No idea who came up with the nonsensical idea, he claims the Legal Zoom person told him it would be better to do it that way and more likely to be issued than under the LLC name (which was the same name as the trademark itself), but that is what he is claiming
I have never even considered attempting to try anything requiring an attorney to get around the fact, by doing it myself, using either forms from the library or in the internet age using advice from the internet.
Just like you don't try to perform surgery on yourself, you should not try something that you are not qualified to do on your own, or you won't be happy with the results. When my dad passed away, I being the executor of the estate did the only thing that made sense, and the first thing was to hire an attorney that specializes in that very thing. His retainer was 500$, and surprisingly, there were 5 siblings. We had a meeting, and I asked each of the rest of my siblings for 100$ to cover the money, since my parents died in debt. One of my brothers did not agree to do so, the one who could have financially afforded to do it the easiest. That set the tone of the whole time of my taking care of settling the estate.
I will say that the money spent on the lawyer was the best money I ever spent. I got an itemized bill every time he did anything, from a phone call to mailing out anything. And I paid him promptly, even if it came out of my pocket. My parents had 2 homes, the first one they had sold on a land contract to a granddaughter, who had defaulted on it. So I had to deal with that. Then I had their marital home. They owed money on it, and the market was down, so I had to rent it out until I could get enough money to pay not only for the mortgage, but even for my dad's funeral. My sister tried to tell me to just be a deadbeat and not pay for the funeral which many people did in our small town, the funeral director being a very decent person who helped a lot of poor people. I refused to do that.
In the end, I ended up paying a lot of money our of my own pocket, but my parents memories were honored, and that is why the asked me to take care of things, I guess. I know this was too much, but I really wanted to confirm just how important it is to always, always have proper legal representation. It will save you untold amounts of money in the long run.
Ummm...err...sigh
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