E65: What I Learned About Trademarks That Changed My Plans, and Moving to America Updates!!

This week, we get into some real time moving updates.  From purging, to selling furniture, and making sure my luggage is within Emirates weight limits, there is a lot to do and 1 more week to go before the big move back to the US.

On top of that I did some research on US and UK trademarks and what I found out actually upset me.  I have to switch gears in my initial trademark plans. 

Lastly, if you are curious about what my Amazon listing looks like, click on the link here.  And if you end up buying one of my beach bags, send me a DM on the IG page linked below! I would love to hear from you! 

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Transcript

 [00:00:00] 

If this is your first time here, I recommend starting at episode one, because this story is in chronological order. 

 If you find this story entertaining or even somewhat helpful.

I would appreciate it. If you could share it with friends or family who might also find it entertaining or also helpful. Spreading the word really does help keep me going. Thanks. 

And last week's episode, we started talking about trademarks, my move back to the U S and how it felt to officially go from employed at a tech company. To self-employed in real time. This week, I give you updates on how my move back to America is going. 

It's not easy. Relocating your life to another country. 

By the time this episode gets released, I will have seven days left before my flight back to the U S. 

Also towards the end of this episode, I have updates on getting a trademark. You wouldn't believe how long it takes to actually get a [00:01:00] trademark. 

Let's get started.

 This side also? No. No, I don't think so, I think if we leave it here then we can take a photo that way and then we can put it back and I

think this can be trash probably.

 Last week, my made. Who has been my maid [00:02:00] for almost eight years has been helping me clean and organize my apartment as I get ready to move back to the U S, I have to take some photos of the apartment for the landlord. So we're working to create a clean looking apartment today. At least just something to send the landlord for now. The agents want to post the apartment for rent already. 

 But the overall apartment still needs a lot of work before officially handing it over.

This will go.

Okay. So. So.

Okay, we can put it back, yeah. And then,

Uh, You can help with that one, I'll do the boxes. Google? 

Yeah,

My mate and I worked together for a couple of hours to clean and organize things. After she left, there was still more work to do. I have a lot of things to purge and put up for sale or donations.

To help clear out the apartment.

My plan is to empty out the apartment completely of all of the furniture

and only have the things that I'm going to fly back to the U S with leftover. Plus I've got painters coming next week, so [00:03:00] they will need an empty space to get everything painted properly.

. What a day it's been already. I actually needed to get some lampshades because 

one of the lampshades in my room broke a little bit and the landlord is definitely going to want to have it fixed. And I randomly, I got so lucky. I randomly saw some lampshades that were for free on Facebook Marketplace.

So I grabbed them really quickly. I got the lampshade issue resolved.

And now I have to figure out what to do about the furniture

so I've been working to post a lot of things in my apartment for sale. I found a few buyers for things which has kept my spirits and motivation high. As I tackle this apartment. But I just ran into my first major roadblock. The guy that was initially going to purchase my bed said he no longer needed it. I quickly need to find a plan B a S a P because there is not much time to waste.

[00:04:00] Okay. Something that happened today that's been stressing me out a little bit is that someone agreed to purchase my bed. It's a queen size bed. It's nice. It's still in really good condition. I bought it brand new from Ikea two years ago. And it's got storage inside of it and everything. And it's still in really, really, really good shape. And it also has a brand new mattress on it, which I put like two protectors on it.

 So I've taken care of this bed really well, and this guy was going to come by it and come take it Saturday, and he just told me today he does not want the bed anymore. He's going to pick up a couple of other pieces. So if he doesn't want the bed anymore, now I'm a little bit at a loss of what to do.

I mean, I'm just getting a little bit anxious because now I either try to find someone else to buy the bed or now that the bed is going to stay. Do I just try to sell everything to the landlord? Because there's still a lot of furniture pieces that I've yet to sell. Like I still have the couch, I [00:05:00] still have the tv set I still have like the overall bedroom and living room sets.

That could just stay and the landlord potentially might buy it. He said he would like to, or do I just still try to find someone else to sell the bed and still try to get rid of all the furniture so that it's just a completely empty apartment, my initial plan and the plan that I've been going forward with until this morning was to just completely empty out the apartment and I leave.

the country in two weeks. So I don't have too much time left to figure things out. So by the end of today, I need to either find someone else to buy the bed or I tried to sell all of the furniture to the landlord. So yeah. And if the landlord says yes, then that's good. Then I have a plan for the furniture.

And then if the landlord says no, that's still fine. I can still just go with plan a, which was to empty out the apartment anyways. But I just don't have a lot of time to. let it sit in limbo. I [00:06:00] need someone to make a decision one way or another. So either someone buys this bed by today, and then I get rid of all the furniture ASAP or they don't buy the bed and the landlord confirms a hundred percent he wants the furniture and I can leave it.

Or he confirms he doesn't want the furniture and I still can't. Keep trying to get rid of the furniture as soon as possible. 

So yeah, I have a lot to figure out and I don't like that things are unknown because I have until this weekend to get all the furniture out of the apartment, which is in like three days.

If it doesn't leave the apartment in three days, then I'll be in a little bit of a bind because the painters come on Monday and today is Wednesday. So yeah, time to get to work.

So today is Thursday just before 1 PM and I've been spending the day so far trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of the furniture. I let the [00:07:00] landlord know that I can sell him some of the furniture, like the main pieces, the bed, the couch, TV shelves. coffee table, things like that.

And if he wants it, he can buy it off of me, but if he doesn't want it, he needs to tell me ASAP because I have to get all the furniture sorted by Saturday. 

So I talked to the landlord on the phone and he said he's going to come to the apartment to figure out if he wants to buy the furniture. I told him he needs to come by today or latest tomorrow because I have to figure out what to do with it if he doesn't want it. So if he doesn't want it, then y'all be kind of scrambling to get the furniture bought and taken, which is fine.

You know, I think I work better under pressure, which is terrible, but it is what it is.

I'm in a rush because Monday the painters come and I have to make sure that everything gets cleaned up by Monday so that when the painters come, either there's no furniture and [00:08:00] they can paint much more easily, or there is furniture and we just have to work around it, but they'll make sure that they paint things appropriately.

yeah. So now that that is sorted for now, at least waiting to see what the landlord wants to do now, it's time to figure out my stuff.

So I've purged about as much stuff as I can in terms of clothes and shoes. So on Emirates you get two free checked bags and each of them can be 23 kgs, which is like, how much is 23 kgs?

Actually, let me check. I don't even know of 40, 50 something. I 23 kgs in pounds.

50 pounds. Okay, cool. 50, yeah. So, each bag can be 50 pounds and I have two free ones from Emirates and I bought a third. So in total I will have three 50 pound suitcases that I'll be allowed to take. 

 So Time to weigh the clothes. [00:09:00] I ended up purchasing vacuum bags from Amazon and

I'm going to start putting all my clothes in the vacuum bags and weighing it out and seeing how much weight that will be because then that determines other things that I need to take because it's not just clothes and shoes, it's like items that I have, documents, files yeah. So I have to weigh it all out.

All right. So let's get to work on a vacuum bag. I decided to vacuum bag all of my winter clothes first. I mean, I guess I'll ultimately end up vacuum packing everything, but yeah, I've just started with the winter clothes. Cause obviously I don't need to wear winter clothes right now. So.

Let's put sweaters into a vacuum bag. I've got sweaters and jackets. I could probably let some more clothes go, but I don't want to.

What size is this one? Okay, I could put, oh yeah, skirts and dresses can go [00:10:00] there. I think I can put all my sweaters in this size. This is a medium size. Let's try.

Vacuum bags are the best.

They really get the job done when it comes to needing to squeeze everything in. But the thing is it's not so much about the space because I bought large suitcases. I don't think space is my issue. It's the weight. Clothes are actually heavy, especially jackets, jackets, jeans. Like this stuff is heavier than you would expect.

The real test is when I put it on the scale. Oh yeah, I ended up buying a scale from Amazon as well because I need to weigh everything properly. I don't want to get turned away and have to dig through my suitcase because I'm overweight.

That would be embarrassing. I don't even have time to do that anyways when I get to the airport. Okay, so this will go in here.

This can go in here.

Do I want that one or that [00:11:00] one?

This can go on top. Alright, this is a sweater bag. Alright. Oh, sorry Shadow.

Okay, so the bag is sealed. Time to use the handy dandy pump. Vacuum bag pump. I've never used the pump before and let me tell you it is A 

okay, two bags are vacuum packed now, all winter stuff. Winter stuff is done. Now for. Jeans, I think. Yeah.

Today is Friday, but honestly no day is different than the other for me because every day I am trying to work on stuff, including weekends, including every day. So I am currently on my way to go get a [00:12:00] facial from the doctor.

Facial clinic but I am in a really good mood today because I talked to the landlord yesterday. The landlord actually ended up coming over to the apartment yesterday and it was Probably one of the most productive things I've done in the last week because the landlord and I agreed that he would buy out all the rest of my furniture, which is still most of the furniture.

It's still the bed, the couch, the shelving, dressers, cabinets. Like it still makes for a full apartment if he buys all the remaining furniture that I have not sold yet. Which is such good news for me because I was gonna try to spend all weekend to try to get rid of the furniture ASAP. Between selling it and just probably having given it away.

But yeah, I'm excited that I am able to leave the furniture in the apartment. I don't have to clear it out. I just have to get it all cleaned up, make sure the apartment looks [00:13:00] spotless and perfect, and move in ready by next week. Because next weekend I'm flying out. I cannot believe that me flying to the U S is happening.

It's happening soon. That's okay. I feel like things I do I end up doing really quickly. I moved to Dubai within two weeks of deciding to move to Dubai. And that was eight and a half years ago. And now I'm basically moving back to the U S. Within, I would say a couple months of me deciding to move back, but it's happening. I mean, I knew earlier this year that I was going to move back to the U. S., but I thought I would wait till maybe later in the summer. So me moving next weekend and flying out next weekend is much sooner than I thought.

I thought I was going to do it in, but it is what it is. I'm excited to do it. And I think this is just one of those things that once you know you're doing it, you just do it. You don't drag it out, waste time. You just, yeah, I just [00:14:00] decided to move.

 So now that the landlord is buying the furniture, I've got a couple of things to figure out.

There's a little rip in the upholstery of the couch, even though the couch is only like two years old and it still looks nice and new shadow was trying to get a treat a while back from under the couch. Cause the treat went under the couch and then he ended up ripping a little hole in the couch, trying to get a treat.

So now I have to figure out how to patch this couch back up so that the landlord's happy. And I, I have to just start working on getting the entire apartment, deep cleaned painted, perfected, so that it looks brand spanking new. Yeah, so that is gonna be how my weekend goes.

There's a few furniture pieces that are getting picked up tomorrow, which are furniture pieces that I don't need anyway. It's like a few shelves and actually one of the TVs is going, which I would have appreciated to keep it, but that's okay. But yeah I'm gonna spend all weekend [00:15:00] just getting the apartment sorted and also packing.

I have to start weighing a bunch of my stuff, which is getting really heavy. So, gotta see how that's gonna work out. And what else? I think that's it. So far. Oh yeah. Something cool that I have planned that I've organized, is paying for a videographer to come do a video shooting session for my beach bags.

So I'm super excited to do that. It's scheduled for Monday morning. really excited. I'm trying to get some friends to come be my models. for the bag. So hopefully that works out and I get friends to come join. But yeah, I'm excited to do a little beach bag video shoot session. And what else? I think that's it.

That's all I got right now. There's a lot of stuff to do, but I'm on my way to get facial. So for now I'm just going to go enjoy that and then get back to all the work I have left to do soon.

[00:16:00] 

Let's switch gears and talk about Amazon next steps. Now. Last week, I let you know that an Amazon brand consultant. Had let me know that Amazon ads are not going to be worth it for me right now. She said that I need to focus on getting a trademark so that I can get brand registered on Amazon. Being brand registered at will allow me to get access, to create a product video on my listing. My beach bag will convert much better if you see how it works in real time. So time to get that trademark. On top of getting all of the stuff done for the move. I did spend a lot of the weekend also researching how to get a trademark. And this is what I found out. For Amazon, they require either a text-based or a logo based trademark. When you trademark something, you choose to trademark a word or a slogan. Or an image itself, which would be the logo. [00:17:00] You tie that to the category that you want to trademark under. For example, I learned that I will be trademarking my logo under the category leather goods or some category similar to that. That part is still being finalized. But you get the idea. 

Ideally, I should get a trademark in the UAE, since that is the Amazon marketplace. 

I am currently selling in. But those trademarks cost around two and a half thousand dollars. So to start off on the more cost-effective side of things. I can get a us or UK trademark, which are between three to $500. The only difference between the countries you choose to trademark in is that your brand will be protected under that country only, but you can still get access to Amazon's product videos, feature with a trademark from any country.

 I just won't have brand protection in the Amazon UAE marketplace. If I get a trademark in another country. For me. The goal is [00:18:00] to first be able to create a product video on Amazon. So I just need the most cost-effective trademark as a start. If my product really starts doing while in the UAE. Then I can work towards getting the UAE trademark to get the brand protection. 

The next thing I learned about trademarks really blew my mind and it actually made me think about this whole trademark thing in a totally different light. My initial plan was to get a us trademark because it makes so much more sense for me. Since I'm moving back to the us, that could help me also open up in the us marketplace as well. 

 The major downside that I just learned about is that apparently getting a trademark in the us right now takes about 12 months, 12 months. Are you crazy? A full year to essentially get access to the one feature that I need on Amazon right now. That honestly changes everything for me. I looked up the timeline to get a UK trademark and it's looking like it's closer to three months. Which is still way [00:19:00] longer than I thought it would take, but it's a lot better than 12. I don't know why, but I assumed getting a trademark would take maybe a month. Not sure, but I did it not anticipate waiting three months for this much less 12. Apparently after COVID, there was a large influx of Amazon sellers that are applying for trademarks in the us. 

Therefore it has created a massive backlog of applications. You can apply for a trademark yourself or hire a lawyer to do the work for you. But either way, the holdup is on the government side of the process, which is experiencing an influx of applicants right now. 

There are lawyers on the government side that have to review the trademark applications. Since it's all legal. It does take time to review each application.

So, I don't know. I mean. I guess I do know. I know that I can not wait 12 months for a trademark right now. 

I guess that means I will have to apply for UK trademark instead. I have scheduled a [00:20:00] call with a lawyer in the UK that will help explain this whole entire process to me. 

I will share with you more specific things that we discuss in this call this week. 

In the meantime, it's back to waiting. 

This whole entire thing on Amazon is a very start-stop process and I'm sure that's not specific to Amazon. I'm sure that's just starting a business in general. You start one thing and then you stop and wait. You want to create a brand, you hire someone to help you build logos and such, and you wait. You want to design your own product? 

So you reach out to suppliers and getting an actual sample shipped to you to your place takes a while on its own. You hire a product image, graphic designer. And you do a lot of waiting there too. Now I need a trademark and I am waiting to see how to best kick off this process. No wonder it has taken me a year to design a product that I was happy with. And finally get it listed on Amazon. 

So [00:21:00] that's where we are today with Amazon. But the beach bags are up and live on Amazon right now. So if anyone of you want to buy one of my beach bags, I have added the link to the listing in the show notes below. I would love to hear your thoughts in the listing. And if you buy one, send me a DM. I want to hear from you and personally, thank you for the support. 

Okay. Time to get back to packing and cleaning the apartment. 

 There's not much time left until I moved back to the U S stay tuned.

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I cannot wait to continue to share this journey with you.