WP163 | Protecting Your Brand and Avoiding Trademark Scams with Joey Vitale
Today’s episode is such a good one, y’all. If you’ve ever wondered how to actually protect your brand—or if all those scary trademark scam letters are legit—you are in for a treat. I brought back one of my favorite past guests, Joey Vitale, and trust me… when someone comes on the Wise Practice Podcast twice, it’s because they REALLY know their stuff.
Joey is not only a top-rated trademark attorney, he’s the guy who makes the legal side of business feel simple, human, and—dare I say—fun. And after everything he’s taught me (and after using his team personally for my own trademark), I knew we needed a round two.
Today, we’re diving into what’s new in the trademark world, how to spot a scam a mile away, why those “blue check” Gmail verifications matter, and the surprising places your brand might be at risk without you even realizing it. And listen—after the week I’ve had using ChatGPT to accidentally make up an entire fictional plot for my book club (yes, really), I can confidently say: do NOT let AI handle your trademark strategy. Leave that part to the experts.
So if you want to protect the business you’ve worked so hard to build—or you simply want to stop second-guessing every trademark-ish email that lands in your inbox—this episode is going to give you clarity and peace of mind.
Let’s jump in and talk trademarks, scams, and everything in between with the brilliant and always entertaining Joey V.
Why Trademarks Actually Matter (More Than You Think)
When Joey and I first connected, I knew trademarks were “important”… but honestly, I didn’t know how important.
A trademark is what gives you the legal right to your name, logo, or slogan.
Without that protection, another business—intentionally or not—could start using something similar, leaving your clients confused or even redirecting them away from you.
Even more alarming?
You could receive a cease-and-desist letter telling you you are the one infringing on them… even if you used the name first.
That’s why Joey calls trademarks a “must-have,” not a “nice-to-have.”
And I get it now more than ever.
The Trending Phrases You Should Not Trademark
One thing Joey stressed in our conversation is that business owners are rushing to trademark things that simply won’t be accepted:
Trending phrases
Popular Instagram sayings
Generic titles like “Next Level Program,” “Elevate,” or “The Practice Podcast”
The trademark office is looking for something much more distinct—something that uniquely identifies you in the marketplace.
So while those catchy phrases work great for content, courses, and promotions, they may not work as trademarked names. Joey breaks down the “why” in the episode, and it’s eye-opening.
When Two Practices Have the Same Name
This part hit close to home.
My practice, Waters Edge Counseling, is actually a name used by several practices across the country. Recently, their employee reviews started showing up on my Indeed page. Imagine potential applicants reading negative reviews that weren’t even about us!
So… what does that mean legally?
Can I ask those other practices to change their names once my trademark is complete?
Joey explains that it all comes down to:
Who used the name first
Whether you serve overlapping clients
Whether your trademark is already registered
And whether the confusion is significant
He helps break down what “playing defense” and “playing offense” look like with trademarks—which is incredibly helpful for practice owners navigating similar situations.
The Rise of Trademark Scams (They Are Getting Sneaky!)
If you’ve ever filed a trademark or even thought about it, chances are high you’ve received a suspicious letter in the mail. Joey told me scammers are now:
Sending fake invoices
Creating official-looking documents
Even spoofing the USPTO phone number and calling business owners
And—this shocked me—sending scam emails that look exactly like Gmail or government notifications
It’s frustrating and frightening for business owners who don’t know what’s real and what isn’t.
But Joey says if you’re working with an attorney, you’ll get far fewer of these scams—and you’ll always have someone to ask when something feels off.
A New Surprise: The Gmail “Blue Check” for Businesses
This was one of my favorite parts of the episode because I had NO idea this existed.
Gmail is now positioning itself like social media platforms—with blue check verification for legitimate brands. When your brand is verified, your emails jump out in inboxes and are less likely to land in spam or promotions.
Here’s the kicker:
To get it, your logo has to be trademarked.
As someone who sends a ton of emails for both my practice and consulting work, the idea of email deliverability improving just because my logo is trademarked is a huge win.
My Experience Working With Indie Law
If you’ve followed this podcast for a while, you know I’m selective about who I recommend. I’ve had an amazing experience working with Joey and his team.
They made the entire process:
Clear
Easy
Transparent
And stress-free
And now that I understand what’s happening behind the scenes, I’m even more grateful for the support.
Final Thoughts
Running a practice comes with enough challenges—your brand shouldn’t be one of them. Protecting your business name, your programs, and your reputation isn’t something to put off for “someday.”
If you’ve been wondering whether you need a trademark… the answer is probably yes.
And today’s episode is the perfect place to start.
Joey Vitale’s Resources
👉 $300 off any trademark service after you book and complete the free consult call.
The 3 Mistakes You Must Avoid to Protect Your Brand with Joey Vitale
Links and Resources
Join the Wise Practice Membership Community
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
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Protecting Your Brand and Avoiding Trademark Scams with Joey Vitale _ WP 163
[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I am Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
Now, let's get started.
[00:00:29] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:00:47] Whitney Owens: Hello, friends and welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad that you take the time to Listen means the world to me.
As you're listening to the podcast, feel free to reach out. Let me know what it means to you. Let me know your ideas, let me know cool guests that you want on the show. I love getting feedback from listeners. As you know, it's kind of lonely recording podcast, so when I get to connect with you, it means a whole lot to me.
And I also really love having cool people on the podcast. And so today I have Joey Vital. He also goes by Joey V, and I had him on the show before actually. So I encourage you, if you wanna know more about trademarks, then go back and listen to episode. It was 1 31, uh, it was back in April 29th, 2025, where Joey talks about the three mistakes to avoid to protect your brand.
Now, today we're gonna talk about scams Blue check with Gmail, which I didn't know anything about before the episode. And just kind of the good and the bad about trademarking and he gave so much great information he's so enjoyable to talk to. And his company is super great. I actually personally am using them for my business.
I've had an excellent experience, cannot say enough. And so when I have a repeat guest on the show, that means they're pretty great. So you're gonna infer a treat today. Now, as I was interviewing him. A story came to my mind and I actually just find it kind of humorous that I wanna share with you guys.
And I also think it speaks to something pretty important. So I'm in a book club and I love book club. I wish I could tell you that I'm a great reader. I'm just not. I never have been. But being in a book club keeps me on top of it. 'cause I love the social aspect of it and I definitely don't like showing up without reading the book.
So unfortunately though at our last book club, I had only read half the book and I actually liked the book. It's actually Theo from Golden, if you've ever heard of it. This, it's a pretty good book. It's a long book though. Very long. And I was about an hour out from book club and I was like, I'm just, I'm not gonna get there.
Right? So. Chat, GPT. I've never used chat GPT for book club, but why would I not? So I've got the audio version, I'm like in the car running errands, picking up my kids. I don't have time to sit down and really research it, but I'm gonna just chat GPT this. So I say, Hey, you know, I'm halfway through this book.
I need you to tell me what happens at the end so that I know all the secrets. And boy, it gave me all the things it told me about the two different families and gave me the names of the families. It explained to me how they knew each other and the feud that occurred over a love situation when the town was first created.
And that is why Theo comes back to the town to be able to find out the secrets behind his past and to be able to reclaim the town from his family that had lost it so many years prior. And I was thinking, wow, that's really interesting. I didn't know that part. I guess that comes out after the halfway point.
It happens in books. And then I was like, oh, well tell me more about this aspect where there's something that he's doing in the book. He's putting these pictures on the wall, or actually he's purchasing pictures off the wall at a coffee shop and you're wondering the whole time you're reading the book, what is this really about?
So I asked Che PT about that, and it gives me a long explanation about that. And then there's these religious themes intermingled in the book. So I asked you chat, GPT about that y'all. I got lots of good stuff. I was ready for book club. So I arrive at book club, we finish our dinner, we finish our socializing, and now it's time to talk about the book.
So then I start talking about the two families that were in the feud and I named them, um, I think one was the Mercer family. I was like, what do you think about the Mercer family, this, that, and the other? And this girl looks at me and says, Whitney. That's not in the book. I was so embarrassed, I laughed so hard, and I explained to them that chat, GPT, said the whole thing.
Now this is a group of ladies, they're fabulous, but I wouldn't say they're entrepreneurs. They're might not be on chat GPT. Some of them didn't really know much about it. So then we proceeded to pick up chat GPT and listen to it during book club. And I told Chap, GPT how upset I was for embarrassing me at book club.
And of course was very apologetic, and I have learned now that when you use Chachi pt, here's your helpful tip. Make sure that you tell it to find resources for anything it tells you. That was my problem. I didn't ask for resources. So at that point, Chachi PT came back, gave me resources, and told me what actually happened in the book.
It was so believable though. The first time I heard it I was like, of course, that's what happened. That makes a lot of sense. So we do talk a little bit about chat GPT in this interview and that brought my, my memory back to that. And I hope I provided you some helpful information throughout your day today.
And now we're gonna talk about trademarks. So don't use chappy, GPT ah chat, GPT for your trademarks. Just don't do it. Go to an attorney. Okay. So we're gonna jump into the episode. Joey's gonna help us understand the good and the bad the scams. The blue check with Gmail for understanding your trademark. So let's jump into the episode
today on the Wise Practice Podcast. I have Joey Vitali, who is a second time guest here on the show, also goes by Joey V. He is an award-winning trademark attorney, internationally renowned speaker. He's on the mission to bring peace of mind to. 100,000 entrepreneurs. Joey's the founder of Indy Law, top rated trademark law firm that's helped thousands of business owners protect their brands.
He's been featured on major stages and podcasts and his newest bestselling book, legally Legit, the Step-by-Step Guide to Protecting Your Business in Owning Your Brand. To learn more, head to indy law.com, or you can visit Joey on social media at the Joey Hotel. Hi, how you doing?
[00:06:54] Joey Vitale: Great, Whitney. Thank you so much for having me.
Not just once, but twice here. I'm so excited to be back.
[00:06:59] Whitney Owens: Well, great. Me too. Well, you always bring a lot of knowledge to the table, so it's not everybody that gets a second episode, but I personally have worked with you, you and your company, and I am, you know, fingers crossed almost at the finish line with my trademark for my group practice.
So it, it's fun to be able to bring people in that I have had a personal positive experience with.
[00:07:20] Joey Vitale: Well, I'm, I'm really honored to be here and man, I mean, we had a great episode last time, but boy, we've still got stuff to talk about.
[00:07:27] Whitney Owens: We sure do. And you were updating me before we got going that there's so many updates happening in the trademark world, so I'm excited to jump into those.
And so could you just give a little more of a snippet if someone missed that first show and they're like, indie law, what exactly is that? Kind of explain what you do for people and then let's get into those good and bads.
[00:07:46] Joey Vitale: Great. So first I just want everyone to know that. It's my goal on these podcasts to really break down the legal side into something that's more plain English and understandable because when I went out and launched my law firm to serve business owners, I learned very quickly that not all legal risks are created equal.
There's a reason my law firm focuses on trademarks. It's because trademarks more than anything else in the law can come back and bite a business owner. If you wanna learn more about that, again, go back to the episode that we did before, but the, the main point is, and for reasons that we get into there, a trademark for your business name, your logo, your slogan.
It's not a nice to have. It's a must have. Mm-hmm. And the only way to legally own your brand and to have legal evidence of ownership is with a trademark being registered at the US level. And so the, the longer you wait to take that step to get legally legit with a trademark, the more you are at risk with receiving a cease and assist letter telling you have to change everything.
[00:09:05] Whitney Owens: My biggest fear,
[00:09:07] Joey Vitale: and you're not alone. We see it. We see it time and time again. It's, it's like the, the law firm business equivalent of like, you gotta buckle your seatbelt when you're in a car. Mm-hmm. Register was too big.
[00:09:21] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So, so what are these kind of the goods and the bads that we were talking about before with trademarking?
[00:09:28] Joey Vitale: Yeah, so I, but before we get into some like nitty gritty kind of details and stuff in the trademark world, I wanted to, to speak a little bit to things that I'm seeing that gets my check of approval and my big red x of please don't do this. Okay. Yeah. So, and, and again, this is a little counterintuitive and against the grain, the way that our heads work, because as business owners.
We are so used to like, if we want something in business, we go online somewhere, we fill out a form and we instantly get it. That's the way that your domain name works. That's the way that for most states forming an LLC works or getting a EIN or employment identification number. So many of those things are quick, they're fairly basic, and, and you, you get it right away and you know you're gonna get it.
With trademarks, it's complicated. The form is really not created with business owners in mind. Over half a million trademark applications get filed every year, and over half of them get rejected, and it takes a year to figure out whether or not it's gonna get accepted or not. But one of the things that I love about indie law is not only do we have a really great.
Like Client happiness score, we measure that closely and we're at like 99.6% with the client happiness score. We also have a 99.7% success rate with our filings. So we've gotten really good now that we've filed over 1500 of them knowing what's likely to get accepted and what's not. And one thing that I'm seeing more and more of that gets that big Red X for me is.
We've got to stop trademarking these trending phrases and these really descriptive choices for business names and podcasts and courses. I clump those together because they're both kind of low hanging fruit things that business owners can think of quickly and and try and trademark. Whitney, I was telling you earlier that.
Some guy is now, he's filed for like 20 applications for six, seven. I guarantee you he's not gonna get any of them because the whole purpose of a trademark is a trademark exists as a trademark. When you have what I call an a Kuna matata effect, where when you see or hear that phrase, it makes you think of a particular thing, right?
You hear Kuna matata, you think Disney. Mm-hmm. If you hear six, seven. It's not like you think of Apple or Disney or any other particular brand, right? I think of my daughter. So there you go. She's always doing this. Oh my gosh, it's so crazy. But, but similarly, LeBron James recently tried and failed to get Taco Tuesday trademarked, and when that happened, his, his lawyers actually said.
We are glad that we got the rejection because this means that LeBron can safely talk about Taco Tuesday and not be worried that someone else has trademarked that phrase and is gonna go after it. These might sound like kind of common sense, silly trademark examples, although I could go on. People have tried to trademark Merry Christmas, happy Thanksgiving, just crazy generic phrases, but.
But where it does, I think, relate to more business owners is I'm seeing a rise in very descriptive, easy to think of names for things. So for example, the the, the Wise Practice Podcast, if that was just the Practice podcast, that would be a lot weaker, right? If we are, we're seeing certain phrases in, in business, like people talking about like having a Next level program or Elevate or the Lit Up entrepreneur.
A lot of these phrases that are becoming so commonplace in the market that when people hear it again, no one thinks of a particular brand. And so for anybody right now that is either guilty of. Rushing forward with these really descriptive names, or maybe currently you're in the middle of naming something for a, a business or a course or a podcast, please think more creatively because it's more, it's those more distinctive phrases and slogans that get you much stronger protections.
Mm-hmm.
[00:14:27] Whitney Owens: Definitely. So as we're talking about kind of trademarks and things that have the same names or different names. My business name Waters Edge counseling's pretty common actually. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of Waters Edge counselings actually in the country, which I don't know that until I start looking it up.
Right. Yeah. So how does that work for someone who has a trademark? Because sometimes I never wanna go after a business that's not, yes. You know, no one wants to do that, especially to another therapist. But like for example, the other day, and I was thinking about you when this happened. I went on Indeed, because we've been posting jobs and there's another waters edge counseling, and I didn't know this, but you can put reviews about businesses in Indeed, like working there.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because someone wrote a nasty review of waters edge counseling and it got impact. It was on my thing, but then when I clicked on it, it was obviously the water's edge counseling in a different state. So then I was like, huh, do I need to ask that business to stop having that name? Because now it's.
Their negative experience at their practice is starting to impact what people are writing about my practice.
[00:15:32] Joey Vitale: Yes, yes. Similarly, there's another indie law out there that does something very nuanced. I think they, they only represent like film companies, but the trademarks are so weird and interesting and fun for me.
What's, what's interesting about your example is. It hits at a lot of the grayness of a trademark analysis. So at the end of the day, there is a trademark infringement in violation if there is customer confusion. And when the trademark office looks at, is there customer confusion, they tend to look at two things in particular.
They look at, okay, how similar are the trademarks themselves? And in this case it sounds like they're pretty dang similar. Same thing. And then, yep. And then the second thing is, are they operating similar services or products to a similar group of people? And the fact that you're in different states is a part of that analysis and decreases the chance of there being confusion.
That being said, you again, I, I love how you kind of started that question with this idea like, hey, like I never. It's really not in my nature. Just go after people just for the heck of it. We hear that a lot with our clients too. And so one thing that we talk a lot with business owners about is it's really important until you get your trademark registered, we've gotta think about playing defense.
The biggest risk to you is we have to make sure that no one else can take your name. Once your trademark is registered or close to it, then we can start, start to think offensively. Around to what extent do I want to enforce my rights against others? And so Whitney, you're thinking about this really well now that your trademark is almost registered.
So what, what I typically ask and talk about in these situations are, number one, like, is this, in this case, is. Even though they're in a different state, are you seeing any type of a marketplace overlap or is it pretty unlikely that you'll have the similar, like the same client because of the fact that you're in different states?
[00:18:03] Whitney Owens: Oh, you wouldn't have the same client.
[00:18:06] Joey Vitale: Okay, so, so that helps. The other thing to think about is, and this is huge, is. Who actually started using the name first? Mm-hmm. Because trademarks are great, and practically speaking, you should be getting trademarked as soon as possible. But technically speaking in the legal world, it's the first company that started using the, the brand name, the logo, the slogan.
That has the strongest trademark rates to it, regardless of, of when, or even if they filed a trademark application. I say that because we are constantly advising our clients not to send what we call backfire, cease, and desist letters where they think, oh, I've got the trademark. They don't. I'm gonna go tell 'em.
They have to stop it, and then they come back and say, Hey, according to our research. You launched last year. We've been around for 20 years. You're actually infringing on our rights.
[00:19:12] Whitney Owens: Oh, this is so complicated.
[00:19:13] Joey Vitale: I know. So bottom line, definitely talk to an attorney before you take next steps. Playing offense in a particular situation, but, but so much of this comes down also to, is the juice worth the squeeze given?
Yeah, I was thinking that. Given the, the time and money that goes into pursuing a cease system request or demand, or even a lawsuit looking at the potential damages. And I think one thing in your case, Whitney, that you would just monitor closely is like, okay, to what extent are these reviews actually adding a measurable impact on people deciding not to work with us?
[00:19:57] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean in this situation it was about employee potential employees, reading bad reviews and thinking that's who we are, you know? So we're gonna go to Indeed, obviously, and put in a request and explain that that's not who we are. You know what I mean? Right. But it did just bring that question up for me that I was like, this is interesting to think about.
[00:20:17] Joey Vitale: Yeah, absolutely. And Whitney, you'll hear about this more once your trademark gets registered, but we do have monitoring plans. We call them protection plans. Uh huh For all of our past clients or alumni clients. So on these protection plans, we will monitor your trademark for especially anyone else that files a similar trademark with the government.
And then if you spot any copycat or potentially confusingly similar brand name, you can let us know and we will advise you on. Hmm. Whether we recommend doing something, and if so, you know, we can put together that letter and send it on your behalf.
[00:21:01] Whitney Owens: That's great. That was my next question, so good job. Of course.
Yeah. We,
[00:21:05] Joey Vitale: we, we are really mindful of the small business owners that we work with, and so we, we make those protection plans as as affordable as we can.
[00:21:13] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So tell me about, I think another thing we talked about was scams. And how they're becoming more prevalent with trademarks.
[00:21:20] Joey Vitale: Yeah, so as we talked about, half a million applications are getting sent a year, and unfortunately bad people, these spam artists are, are jumping on this opportunity to say, Hey, this is a high volume activity that business owners are taking, and so how can we get in there, pretend to be the trademark office and get money from these people.
Hmm. So usually what we see is scam letters to business owners after they file saying, Hey, we're the trademark office, or We're some type of trademark company and something is due or past due on your file, and here's, you know, give us your credit card information and mail us back or whatever and we'll get it taken care of for you.
Pretty much all of our clients get at least one piece of trademark scam. But the scammers are getting really good. They're starting to evolve from just sending these letters that look pretty impressive and legit to now emails and even phone calls. We had a client where he got a phone call and he looked it up later, and it was the trademark office's phone number, but.
These con artists, now they have the tech to do this, and they made it sound like they were calling from the trademark office saying that they needed something and trying to get payment over the phone.
[00:22:50] Whitney Owens: I mean, that happened with my credit card company. Ugh. It said the name of the credit card company when they were calling and I looked up the number and then I was like, oh my.
I just believed them.
[00:23:00] Joey Vitale: Abso Well. Yeah,
[00:23:01] Whitney Owens: yeah. 'cause you see them calling.
[00:23:03] Joey Vitale: Exactly. It's. It's unfortunate and it's, it's working enough for them that they're doubling down on it. So I will say that if you work with a trademark attorney, I think they are realizing that they're not as likely to trick people there.
And so you will receive way less spam if you work with an attorney, but no matter what, it's inevitable.
[00:23:27] Whitney Owens: Oh no. It's the world we live in.
[00:23:28] Joey Vitale: Yeah. And, but whether, whether you ever hire us or not, please feel free to reach out and send us a letter that, that you're concerned about or, or something else and we'll take a closer look.
[00:23:40] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Great. Well, I appreciate you offering that. That's of course very helpful. Alright. The other thing we're gonna talk about, which I had didn't know anything about before we got on here was blue check with Gmail.
[00:23:52] Joey Vitale: This is so cool. And. It took me a while when I was reading all of this to see the connection to trademarks, but in the same way that like Facebook and.
X and, and Instagram and LinkedIn now have these like blue verified checks that you can get if you're fancy or know the right people. Email is now allowing companies to have a blue check next to their name. So when anyone from that company sends an email, they get a blue check next to it. Um, people with the blue check really like it because it lets people know that you're not a scammer.
So if a. A bank or Gusto or some other official brand that you work with send you an email and you see that blue check. You can trust that it's legit. For that reason, the emails 'cause a lot of these big companies, just like small companies where we're relying on. The MailChimps of the world to send our emails and are sending emails in bulk.
And business owners are increasingly struggling with, man, I'm sending emails to my list, but so many of them aren't getting read. They're going to spam or like not the primary inbox. And when you get this blue check, it helps all of your emails go into the primary inbox and, and skip the spam folder. Yeah.
But what's crazy is in order to get the blue check, you have to have the logo of your brand trademarked. Hmm. And so I was telling Whitney earlier that historically indie law has not prioritized logo trademarking so much because a lot of business owners every few years will modify their logo a bit. And the way the trademarks work, if you make any change to your logo, you can't renew that trademark anymore.
You have to file a new one.
[00:25:51] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:25:51] Joey Vitale: But, but now that there's this cool like marketing advantage to trademarking your logo, we're seeing more and more business owners, especially ones that are tech savvy, want to prioritize a logo version of their trademark. Mm-hmm.
[00:26:07] Whitney Owens: I wanna make sure I understood this correctly.
So if I'm using a third party email software
[00:26:13] Joey Vitale: Yeah.
[00:26:13] Whitney Owens: You're saying those emails would get the blue check if it was.
[00:26:19] Joey Vitale: Correct. If you do this stuff and you send the proper paperwork to to Google, then any emails that you send that get received inside of a Gmail folder will get the blue check. So when I open it, like on my iPhone mail app, for example, I won't see the blue check there, but as long as your audience is using Gmail, they'll see the blue check next to it.
[00:26:48] Whitney Owens: I mean, I am thinking about so many things first with like, I don't know when this happened, and you might know this. It's like all of a sudden my Gmail changed where I had a primary promotion. Yes. Bam. I didn't set that up. I just went in and it was different.
[00:27:03] Joey Vitale: Right.
[00:27:03] Whitney Owens: Well, as a business consultant, I have an email list.
Joey, you have an email list. I get your emails. And so now a lot of those go into promotion.
[00:27:13] Joey Vitale: Correct.
[00:27:14] Whitney Owens: And then people aren't reading them as much.
[00:27:17] Joey Vitale: Right? Yeah. I mean, tell me a business owner that doesn't want to improve their open rates and click rates, right? Mm-hmm. And, and I will say that this is not just like a magic pill.
You have to follow email deliverability. Best practices in general. Yeah. But this. This can can very much positively impact your marketing and your visibility. And I think on just a broader note, I think this is a really cool and smart way for platforms like Gmail to say, Hey, we're going to look, start looking to proof of trademark registrations as a kind of passport.
For business owners. So if you want that special treatment of not being seen as spam or potentially if you want certain perks on a platform, we're willing to give that to you. If we see some evidence that shows us that you are who you say you are, and we are, we're seeing some similar trends happening, for example, on Amazon.
So this is a bit more of a niche thing, but if you are a, if you're a hand maker on Amazon Yeah. And you use their Amazon Handmade service, if you go through and not only put a profile and listings together, but also send them your trademark registration, then you get extra perks on the platform.
[00:28:52] Whitney Owens: Nice.
[00:28:54] Joey Vitale: So I think that that's going to increasingly happen where that proof of a trademark registration gives you advantages now that like scammers and just saturation is on the rise.
[00:29:05] Whitney Owens: That's great. Yeah. And even thinking about a client who might get an email, you know, now that we're gonna put HIPAA information in an email, but they get an email from the therapist or from the practice they scheduled with like having that blue check is gonna provide them so much more assurance.
[00:29:20] Joey Vitale: Totally well, and what's crazy is Google has been pretty quiet about this release, and so a lot of people, it's almost like when you, you know, want a certain car, then you start seeing it on the street. Now that we've talked about it, you'll probably start to go in and notice the blue check more and more.
But it's, it's definitely something that larger companies jumped on quickly and I think I, I hope we'll start to see smaller businesses start to follow suit.
[00:29:48] Whitney Owens: Yeah. That's great. Well, this has been very good learning a lot of things still. Is there anything we didn't cover before we kind of talk about working with indie law?
[00:30:01] Joey Vitale: No, I think that we covered over the main, the main three. I will say that the. The trademark office is really trying to stay on top of all of these fast tech changes, and so there are different parts of the way that the trademark office works online and on their site, and they're, they're still kind of updating all of these different.
Forms and like dashboards and centers constantly. And so if anyone does try and do anything on your own and you go to the to the website and you see an error page, it might just be that you have to. Try again tomorrow 'cause they're working on some bugs behind the scenes. But on that tech note, we're also seeing a, a rise in AI and in people using AI and chat GPT to, to answer trademark questions.
I'm sure you can understand this with your line of work, Whitney, but we, we continue to see that chat. GPT and similar tools are not reliable trademark analysts.
[00:31:09] Whitney Owens: No. So just be
[00:31:10] Joey Vitale: careful.
[00:31:11] Whitney Owens: Yes, I've had times which had GPT led me astray, so I understand. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know you're offering a special deal for our listeners.
$300 off a service is, if that's correct, after they booked their consult call.
[00:31:28] Joey Vitale: Absolutely, absolutely. If you hear this and you're like, man, we need to get started, or just, I'm interested, there is seriously no cost consult. It's free. It's a no pressure sales call. We'll, we'll learn more about what's, what's going on.
We're happy to also do some quick searches to see what comes up on our end. Recommend next steps. Uh. And if we really don't think that there's anything that needs trademarking in your business, we'll tell you straight, but chances are there's at least one thing in your business that is worth trademarking.
And yeah, the, the way that we, we are doing this is that the call is already free, but if you decide during and after the call that you'd like to work with us, we'll give you that exclusive $300 off. So all you gotta do is go to indie law.com/call. Book a call and then on that form or on the call, just let them know that Whitney sent you.
[00:32:19] Whitney Owens: Thank you. Yeah, and look, I, I did the call. It was easy. No pressure, you know, and then went from there and I've had such a great, easy, honestly, easy experience. I should maybe knock on wood 'cause we're talking about trademarks, but, and laws made it as easy as possible. So I'm really grateful for that.
[00:32:35] Joey Vitale: So glad to hear it.
That's like my whole mission. So you made my week.
[00:32:41] Whitney Owens: Oh, wonderful. Well, it's always a pleasure and I appreciate all the knowledge that you bring to our listeners, so thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:32:47] Joey Vitale: Thanks so much, Whitney. Bye everybody.
[00:32:52] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and The Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and Wise Practice
[00:33:08] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
