Avoid the Legal Horrors with Julie King: Patent, Trademark, and Business Strategy

Aspirin. Escalator. Thermos. All former trademarks that became generic and lost protection. Podcasters run into a version of this constantly: naming a show exactly what it's about, then finding out that's the hardest kind of name to protect.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

A real example from a recent clearance search: an AI tool flagged visual similarities but missed marks that sound identical when spoken aloud. Here's why that gap matters under the likelihood of confusion standard, and why AI search results still need a human evaluating them. Under two minutes.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

You bought the domain, registered the LLC, and grabbed the social handles. None of it tells you whether you're actually clear to use that name as a brand. Here's why, and what actually does. Under two minutes.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

You searched Google. You checked the USPTO's free database for your exact name. Nothing came up, so you figured you were clear to use it.

You might not be. The standard that actually governs whether a name is safe to use isn't "does an identical mark exist." It's likelihood of confusion, a broader test that covers marks that sound alike, marks in related product categories, and rights that never show up in any government database at all.

In this episode, I walk through what a real trademark clearance search actually covers, why most DIY searches stop short of it, and where that gap tends to get expensive.

In this episode:
— The likelihood of confusion standard, and why it's broader than most people expect
— What a real TESS search checks that a name-only search doesn't: phonetic equivalents, related goods categories, design codes, and pending applications
— Common law trademark rights—enforceable rights that exist without any registration and won't appear in TESS
— Other registrability problems: descriptive and generic marks, surnames, and the doctrine of foreign equivalents
— A real example from my practice of what an AI search tool caught, and what it missed

Full episode blog post + FAQ section: https://kingpatentlaw.com/why-your-google-search-isnt-a-trademark-search-and-what-a-real-one-actually-covers

Timestamps:
00:00 - The cease and desist the business owner never saw coming
01:03 - The actual legal standard: likelihood of confusion
02:01 - What a real TESS search checks for
03:10 - Common law rights: the risk that's invisible in any database
03:32 - Other registrability problems a search should catch
04:28 - What AI search tools catch, and what they miss
04:50 - Real-life example of what an AI search missed
06:16 - Another real-life example of a client DIY search gone wrong and what I did to deal with it
07:18 - If you must DIY

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

The podcasting space is more crowded than it's ever been, and too many shows share nearly identical names. You can file a trademark application before you record a single episode — an intent-to-use application establishes your priority date before you've gone public. I just filed one for a new podcast I'm launching. Here's how it works and why it matters.

Subscribe for IP and business content for podcasters and other creators and small businesses.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

A current client filed for a design patent before their product launched. Then a copycat appeared. Here's what being prepared actually looks like, and what the situation looks like for sellers who come to me after the fact, with nothing filed.

Subscribe for IP education for product sellers and small business owners.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

You have a physical product and three different people gave you three different pieces of advice on how to protect it. Here's the sequence that actually makes sense, starting with the protection most product sellers skip entirely.

Subscribe for IP education for product sellers and small business owners.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

If you're building a physical product and you're not sure where to start with IP protection—or you've gotten three different pieces of advice and don't know whose to take—this episode is for you.

I walk through the types of IP protection that matter for physical products (utility patents, design patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyright, and trade dress) and the sequencing that actually makes sense. The order matters because some IP protection windows open and close on timelines you don't control, and some of the most expensive mistakes product sellers make come from filing the right things in the wrong order.

In this episode:
— What each type of IP protection covers, and what it doesn't
— Why trade secret protection is the right starting point, and what establishing it actually requires
— The 12-month US patent filing window, and why international protection works very differently
— Why trademark clearance has to happen before you commit to a name
— What trade dress is and why it can complement a design patent over the long term
— Why even a small IP budget still gives you meaningful options

Timestamps:
00:00 - The copycat problem
01:14 - The four types of IP protection for physical products
04:06 - The filing sequence that actually makes sense
08:51 - Three questions to ask before you file anything
10:01 - Even small budgets have options

Full episode blog post + FAQ section: https://kingpatentlaw.com/ip-protection-for-physical-products-what-to-file-first/

📅 Book a consultation: kingpatentlaw.com
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

Your customer buying habits. Your pricing structure. Your process. You're probably sitting on IP that could destroy your business if it went public. So what do you do about that?

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.

Patents expire in 20 years. Trade secrets can last forever, as long as you keep them secret. Coca-Cola, KFC, and WD-40 all bet on secrecy over patents. Here's why.

Avoid the legal horrors and keep rocking your IP. 💀🎸

📰 Sign up for the Avoid the Legal Horrors newsletter: https://kingpatentlaw.com/newsletter/

📅 Ready to protect your brand and business? Book a consultation: https://kingpatentlaw.com/appointments/consultation/
I help creators and small business owners with IP matters nationwide and with contracts in Illinois and Georgia.

@kingpatentlaw on social media (NOT X)

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only, is not legal advice, and does not form an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney. This content contains attorney advertising material. Julie King | King Patent Law, PLLC | 301 N Neil St Ste 400, Champaign IL 61820. Phone number and email address available at kingpatentlaw.com.