Episode 022: Everything Legal and SEO w/ Chandler from Lethal Legal

Hello, hello and welcome to everything SEO. I am so excited about today’s episode and it’s not just because I’ve seen a lot of people not do what we’re talking about today. Like it’s, it’s terrible. But today I have Chandler from Lethal Legal and just go ahead and introduce yourself actually. Hello, my name is Chandler.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m the founder of Lethal Legal and I help protect brands and businesses. I help them scale with security and stay out of all types of legal chaos. I mean, that’s the goal. So today, the whole reason I’m bringing Chandler on here is, the other day, and actually this has been like a topic I’ve had with, I’ve brought up to a lot of people in my audience, and it’s a, not necessarily a question, but it always kind of leads in that direction, is, Essentially protecting your content, protecting your brand, because, you know, people still blog post all the time.

And that’s, that’s a huge pain in the butt. And then just keeping our websites legal. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve audited a website, done the SEO audit, or even started blogging, and they don’t have proper disclaimers, they don’t have their privacy policy, they don’t have none of the stuff that they need to have.

And that’s Kind of what I want to talk about today. So let’s start with kind of like brand protection. So that’s kind of like your bread and butter. Can you give us a little insight explanation? Yeah, absolutely. So when it comes to protecting your brand, you actually made a good point. And I want to, I want to highlight the distinction between protecting your content and protecting your brand because they’re two different things, but they’re both incredibly important.

So when it comes to protecting your brand, we’re talking about a trademark and you can trademark any name that is a identifiable asset to your brand. Meaning. It can of course be your overall brand name, and that’s going to be the most popular, your logo, your slogan, your tagline. But then you also have the name of your podcast, the name of your membership, the name of your courses.

Those are all things that are also assets to your brand that you can trademark. And when you trademark, then that means you secure rights to them and you own them and you have the exclusive right to use them in the way that you do. This not only A gives you actual ownership of your brand, but B it also makes it so people can’t copy you.

Because if everyone, for example, started a podcast with the same name, right? As you, then that’s going to create confusion among clients, among consumers, things like that. So it’s about protecting your brand and also protecting your clientele base. Cause I’ll have people come to me and they’ll be like, Hey, There’s another business that has the same brand name and people are getting our two brands confused, right?

So one way to prevent that is by creating that actual ownership of your brand, getting ownership, getting you that exclusive right to use your brand name. However, with whatever goods or services that you offer, the next thing is going to be protecting your content. And that is going to be a copyright matter.

So there’s two things I want to highlight when it comes to copyrights. One is that. You automatically have a copyright and whatever you create. So the second fingers hit keyboard, the second, your finger snaps a photo, you automatically own that copyright. However, it’s a lot more difficult to enforce and the damages that you can get are much, much higher if you actually register that copyright.

So registering that copyright is important for things like blog posts, right? If those are, I’m hearing a lot. I’m human too, so I’m not someone who’s like, you need to go copyright every reel that you ever put out on Instagram or whatever. Absent right there are people who do because they get their stuff, you know, jacked all the time.

But the main thing is they’re going to be those programs, those courses, those blog posts, the copy on your website, stuff like that, because people are just hijacking your entire copy. That’s like, So it’s a significant part of your brand identity. So that can be really problematic as well. When it comes to copyrights, it’s important to get that actual federal register copyright because you can, I mean, damages, it’s so significant.

It’s like 750 compared to like 30 K. Oh my gosh. Higher. So it’s, it’s not, it’s, it’s not small numbers. We’re talking about. And I always say it’s a matter of if when it happens, not if it happens, because it’s going to happen. Right? It’s just a matter of when. And so it’s one of those things where you want to be protective whenever that type of situation arises.

You know, I don’t even know if it’s like a, when it happens. It’s like, if it’s probably already happened and you just don’t know it. That’s the other thing you can, you can trademark stuff and you can copyright stuff before you ever launched it. Right. Before you ever go public with it. And that’s actually the way I prefer to do it, especially when it comes to, I mean, when it comes to new brands, things like that, you want to make sure that you’re trademarking it before you’re going.

Public with it. That’s even when I rebranded. That’s what I did. Reason being, you don’t want people to have eyes on it because if they file first, your S. O. L. Right. So first to file when it comes to trademarks. And so you want to make sure that number one, you’re not starting a brand that someone else already owns.

If you are, and then you start making money from it, they can come after you and say, Hey, Natalie, do you have to stop? And you have to rebrand, but also we’re going to take all the profits that you’ve made using this brand name because we own it. Yeah, big, big, right? Big out. And so. It’s one of those situations where when you’re people are starting a brand, it’s one of the most crucial steps to take because you want to make sure you’re not going to leave yourself in that hot water and in that type of situation.

So that’s, that’s a big thing. And then when it comes to copyrights, you are able to, I had someone actually in my DMs yesterday, she’s launching a course and she wanted to copyright everything at the way that you want So copyrights really new nuance with the different applications and the way, et cetera.

I’m not even going to dive into all that, but what I can say is that because she’s coming to me before she launched, we’re actually able to file in a way that’s going to allow her to file like one application versus having to file like 10 applications to protect her content. So if you file before you launch, especially when it comes to courses, it’s so powerful because it allows you to protect everything.

All in one application versus having to file like 10 separate applications. That’s going to obviously be way more expensive than if you’re just doing 1. so timing is truly everything. I always say time is of the essence and I know it comes across bias because it’s my job to help people do this stuff.

Right? So I, I get that part, but I’m so serious. Time truly is of the essence. So they can’t. Okay. So this kind of leads me into two questions. What if. And I get this a lot because a lot of people who have strong SEO have been around for a long time. If they’re already using it, and then somebody else files it Can they go back and say, Hey, I know you’ve been using it for a while, but I own it now.

So it, one, it depends on the way that they’re using it. It’s going to depend on if common law rights were established. So there’s called common law rights and that gets a little bit more nuanced, but the, the theory behind it is you can’t say, okay, I see someone using this. Now I’m going to go and launch the same thing, but I’m going to file for a trademark first.

Right. I have, right. They might get the trademark. They might still get the trademark, so you’re SOL and you can’t go and get the trademark. You can never own your brand, but they can’t then come after you and be like, Hey, you have to stop because of the fact that they don’t want, in theory, that would be a little bit backward.

And we want these like large companies bullying, you know, small businesses or stuff because of that, because that would be a tactic that they would use. Oh, absolutely. That’s why the common law rights are there, but the common law, right? When you have a common law, right? Great. You can continue to use it right where you are, but you can never expand.

That’s what I was just thinking when we said that I was like, I bet you can’t do anything. Can’t that’s what it and now now my 2nd question is, is, oh, there it is. So I know trademarking can take. The actual, like, getting start, starting process, filing process isn’t too long, but, like, to get the trademark approved, it can take anywhere, what, 12 months?

A year to 14 months is the, 14 months is like the standard average now. I know. If someone wants to copyright their content or anything, how long does that normally take? Is that a lot quicker? Are we still landing, like, 14 months? Yeah, but it depends. It’s definitely shorter than the trademark process, but it also depends on it.

So when we file copyrights, we have to submit similar to trademarks. You have to submit evidence that you’re using the mark. Copywriting something. We have to submit what we’re copywriting, right? We can’t just copyright it and not show them. And so four things that require a physical submission. So we have to submit the best version of whatever it is we’re copywriting.

So for example, for copywriting a book, we have to submit a copy, a physical copy of the book. If you’re copywriting a CD. You have to submit the actual CD if you are copywriting. So things like that. So when you’re doing a physical, that’s going to take a little bit longer compared to if you are copywriting, for example, a PDF or slides or whatever that is, then you can, it only exists virtually.

And so you can submit that virtually as well. And that’ll be a little bit quicker. It’ll be closer to like that six months compared to that nine months. But once the process is compared, but kind of once the process isn’t, it’s, it’s going, you can start going ahead and using your stuff though, cause you have it.

Yeah. You’re both, I would say, as long as you’re confident that it’s yours. And when it, when it comes to copyrights, like when it comes to trademarks, we have to do the full clearance search to make sure no one else already has it. When it comes to copyrights. Well, as long as you’re copywriting what you made, that definitely makes sense.

And I think that’s kind of, I’ve been sending everybody back to, and I’ll do it again. So if you’re listening, I’m gonna send you back there once more. The first episode in the series is branding and SEO. And I feel like owning your brand and just going back and listening about the importance of just Your brand and SEO and just your brand in general, I think that will kind of give you a bigger impact on what we were talking about, the trademarking.

So definitely go back and listen to that one, but that kind of leads us into the little last bit that I wanted you to cover. And that was. Making sure your website is legal. And what happens when you don’t? Oh my goodness. So it’s one of the common things, but one of the easiest ways to protect yourself is in the footer of your website, having terms of use and a privacy policy.

Terms of use are going to govern how people can and cannot use your site. And then the privacy policy is going to govern how you use and collect and gather users information. They sound like pesky documents. They sound like no big deal. Who cares? I get it. Like I do. I get it. You can be fined tons of money per visit per user if you don’t have a privacy policy in place.

So it is one of the easiest ways to protect you. Because I mean, if you’re collecting any type of information, mind you, on our sites, people are probably having way to book calls with us or sign up for email lists or And, you know, submitted a question, whatever it is, you have to have a privacy policy in place.

Otherwise you can get, find tons of money per visit. So it’s, it’s like I said, it’s one of the easiest ways to protect yourself. Yeah. I’ll see people without it. And I’m like, and the other thing is I, I feel as though maybe this is my personal opinion, but I don’t think it’s just me. Like a hot take. I think people do notice this stuff.

It adds a layer of perfectionism to your website. It just does. If I see people and they don’t have a footer and they don’t have terms of use in a privacy policy, I’m like, Oh, I’m, I’m wondering if you’re like a relatively new business or something like that. I do full heartedly believe it adds a layer professionalism.

Oh, definitely. I, you can’t, nobody can see me, but I’m sitting here nodding as Chandler says everything, because absolutely, like, that’s one of the first things I go and I look at, actually, is I scroll down to the footer and I’m like, oh, you know, because I want to see who did their site. That’s a big thing for me.

And then I also want to make sure that everything is, is there. And I’ve been on websites that don’t have footers at all, like they don’t tell you anything about their site, they don’t have their privacy policy, and I’m sure there’s more, I’m, I’m pretty sure, but if you’re like selling digital products, you should have additional disclaimers, and like, if you’re doing affiliate marketing, you should absolutely have disclaimers, I always say put it in your blog post, and then I say put it on your site too, but people are just, they’re not disclosing anything.

Oh, nothing at all. Oh, crazy. It’s so wild. I mean, well, and here’s the other thing I did, people race in the sense that you don’t know what you don’t know, right? Some people are like, oh, I had no use. You simply don’t know. And so I, I get that piece of it. Because that’s kind of almost how I feel with taxes.

Like I don’t know certain stuff. I just, you know, but if you don’t know, then you need to seek someone who does know, and you need to get that help because unfortunately, similar with taxes and the IRS lifts, same thing with the law, right? Saying, well, I didn’t know that or, but I didn’t need to do that.

It’s not an excuse. The IRS isn’t going to buy it. The laws aren’t going to buy it. Right. We still have to make sure that we’re crossing our teeth. Let’s say from what I’ve seen in your content, that’s kind of like the biggest message that I get up is like You can be ignorant, you can just not know also, and like, not be aware, but ultimately, like, they don’t, they don’t care.

That’s the same with, you know, using somebody else’s trademark, or brand name, like, it, it, it doesn’t matter, it’s just, it’s, it is what it is. Well, Brandon, excuse, I didn’t, I didn’t mean to do that, but ignorance isn’t bliss, like, just because you didn’t know you were infringing on someone else’s brand doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be able to take all the profit.

That you’ve made they still can that. So it’s, I mean, ignorance truly isn’t bliss, especially if you’re sitting over here and you just, you know, maybe you lost a whole new brand and you launched your website and did all this good stuff and you’ve been building it out. And they’re like, you’re definitely making, making money off of what I own.

And so I’m going to need that place. The way I not like give unsolicited, I don’t give unsolicited advice, right? You can’t give advice. My clients, so I’ll see people online going through rebrands and I’m like, I just hope you follow me and you decide to come to me and talk to me because I, I, I know what you’re doing.

You’re rebranding and it’s just something you can’t own and this can land you in dangerous territory. So you’re kind of close. And I, the other thing is that it’s, yeah, and it’s, it’s one of those things where. I talk about these, these stories and the bad things that can happen in this and that, and I’m not trying to do it as like a marketing tactic where I’m scaring people, but this is the stuff that I see on the daily basis.

So it’s like, my job is to keep you safe. So please just let me take you over here, pick you up, leave you over here, keep you in this little bubble of insecurity where you’re protected and you’re not going to, you know, face any of these issues because it is so much, Easier, less headache, and quite literally a whole lot less stress.

expensive if you handle things from the beginning and you take a proactive approach rather than being reactive to when these legal situations arise. Absolutely. Right. So it kind of, I think we covered a good bit. So that kind of leaves us at the end. Do you have like an actionable tip? So what, if they want to protect their brand or, you know, make sure their website’s legal, what would be their next step to do?

So number one, you can do a quick search. I’m always hesitant to tell people this. I want people to have the resource, but it comes with a disclaimer. Number one, you can look on tests. If you are creating a new brand name, the first step you should take is to look on tests. Tests is not the end all be all.

So just because you search something on tasks and you don’t see any results does not mean that you can trademark this, but it’s going to give you at least A starting point. And I, again, I say this with the biggest asterisk. So TESS is the trademark electronics search system. You can type it into Google and it will come up.

You can type in whatever brand name you want. There’s a few disclaimers here. One, you have to be mine because it has to be in the same type of category. Brand names that are the same can coexist as long as they’re different enough. For example, Dove soap versus Dove chocolate, there’s no overlap there, right?

So you have to be mindful if the categories are related or the same. And then number two is that it’s going to be an identical match because you can type in Starbucks with one S and all of Starbucks trademarks are going to pop up and you type in Starbucks with two S’s on the end, nothing comes up.

That doesn’t mean you can trademark Starbucks with two S’s. So that’s where I, I’m like, use tasks. But don’t rely too heavily on it because it’s one of those things where it’s, you’re not getting the full picture. You are getting like a 5 percent glimpse. I want you to have that 5%, but it’s not the full picture.

So start there. And then also, if you want just more knowledge about all things legal, including tests, including other ways to search, download the free legal guide to legal success. I have an ebook. It’s 70 plus pages of All things legal. So it covers business entities. It covers all things, contracts, what you need, when you need it, why do you need it?

What clauses should go in your contract? All types of intellectual property from trademarks, copyright, patents, everything. It is so, so, so inclusive and it really gives people a good starting foundation whenever they’re ready to lock down the legal side of the business. I love it. And that will be linked in the show notes.

Everything that we’re, we’re talking about is going to be linked in the show notes so that you can just. Click and go. All right. For our last thing, if someone wants to work with you, what would that look like? How would they do that? Yes, absolutely. So they can either shoot me a DM on Instagram at LawyerChannelJ, or they can book a free consultation on my website at www.

YourLegalLegal. com. Perfect. Then I think we’re done for today. I feel like that’s a lot for people to mull over. And I always feel like, you know, when we get to the legal side of things, we kind of, we, we definitely stress for sure. Cause none of us want to be in, none of us want to be in legal trouble without realizing we’re in legal trouble.

It’s like, like the taxes you’re talking about. Nobody wants to be in financial trouble. Nobody wants that letter from the IRS, but you know, we get them anyways and they could care less. That’s it for today. I’m excited for next week’s interview as well. Just keep on listening. I’m, I absolutely hate doing these little sign offs, but I love you listening.