Josh Gerben’s Post

The happiest lawyers I know have on thing in common: They have great relationships with their clients. In an industry known for burnout and mental health struggles, there are many lawyers thriving and enjoying life. I am one of them. A big part of the reason I consider myself happy in a legal career is because of the clients I am surrounded with on a daily basis. The vast majority of them are kind, appreciative of our service and find great value in the work we do. This is by design. Here are my top 3 tips to developing a client base that will make your legal career a joy: 1. Ensure your firm focuses on producing high quality work. This seems obvious... but many law firms corners on legal work. This can lead to less-than-stellar outcomes for clients. I will not let work out the door unless it meets certain standards (just ask anyone that works at Gerben IP :)). We have to deliver good results to keep our clients happy. And we do. 2. Create (and stick to) budgets with your clients. We rarely receive a question on a bill. Our fees are discussed in advance and we have monthly conversations with clients about the budget needed for a matter. The goal is for a client to receive our bill and for it to be for an amount they expected. If a client receives a bill they expect you will avoid uncomfortable and stressful conversations about money. 3. Decline new clients that are not a good fit. We will only accept a new client if we believe they will find value and appreciate the work we are going to do for them. As a grizzly veteran, I can spot a potential client that is only looking to hire a lawyer as a last resort and/or looking for the "least expensive option." Taking on these clients (even if you are slow) is always a mistake and should not be done. ### By consistently doing these 3 things every day, our firm has developed a client base that makes work fun and exciting. My conversations with clients are always positive. I look forward to the calls because I know we will be having a good discussion about protecting their trademarks (as opposed to a stressful one). Are there any tips you would add to my list for creating an enjoyable law practice? #lawfirms #attorneys #lawyers #businessoflaw

How many more times in your life will you see the people you care about? This is a question I started asking myself a few years ago. Balancing a busy career and kids made it increasingly challenging to spend time with the people I care about most... even my own parents. To remedy this, my parents and I made a deal: We would spend our summers together at the Jersey Shore. The summer of 2024 is our 5th summer together. We have created a lot of new family traditions in this time. My favorite? Watching the 4th of July fireworks. Making this happen every year is not easy. My dad and I have to re-arrange our work schedules. It also takes a continued financial investment. But we are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The time together is priceless. #worklifebalance #familytime

As we enter a long holiday weekend, I am doing what I always do... working a few hours. Why? There are many reasons. But one sticks out to me as most important: I want to normalize hard work for my kids. My dad did it for me. He always worked weekends and holidays. It was "normal" in my house for dad to be working. Ultimately, it was my dad's hard work that provided me with enough financial security to take a risk and start my own law firm (which now supports my own family). Since I know how well my dad's hard work paid off, I worry about the anti-work culture that is spreading. In fact, I see many brilliant people that would be much more successful if they did not reach the following limitations: - The amount of time they are willing to work. - The amount of effort they are willing to put into their work. - The amount of improvement they seek to make in their work. I hope my kids grow up to be the rock that people around them can rely on. That will never happen unless hard work is simply viewed as normal. #businessowners #workethic #holidayweekend

I advise clients on a daily basis that running a proper trademark search is a critical part of creating a new brand. Why? A study of USPTO data completed by Gerben IP shows that about 20% of all new trademark applications get refused due to a conflict with a pre-existing trademark. A common situation is as follows: - Client comes up with a new brand name. - Client does his/her own trademark search, trusting the "Internet." - Client files trademark application. - About 10 months the USPTO issues a refusal of that trademark application. - Client calls our office, claiming the USPTO made a mistake. - Our review shows the USPTO is likely right and the client should rebrand. - Client is "too far along" to rebrand and is stuck in a bad place. - Client receives a cease and desist letter and finally engages us to help. The best way to avoid being this Client is to engage a professional to run a proper trademark search. Despite what the Internet tells you, there is still not a software tool available that can easily tell you if a trademark is clear to use and register. Hopefully one day that tool will exist. Today is not that day. #brandprotection #marketing

Well... this is awkward. Diageo (the company that bought George Clooney and Rande Gerber's tequila company CASAMIGOS) has opposed Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber's attempt to register the trademark CASA CRAWFORD. Per a legal action filed with the USPTO last week, Diageo claims that the CASA CRAWFORD trademark for a tequila brand is too close to its rights in CASAMIGOS. Does this type of legal action seem odd to you? It sure is. The parties involved would have had an opportunity to talk and try to resolve any concerns before Diageo took this step to formally oppose the CASA CRAWFORD application. Diageo's decision to take this action suggests that settlement talks have not yet resulted in the parties agreeing on a path forward. I would still expect this case to settle without significant litigation. But if it does not... get your popcorn ready. #Casamigos #Tequila #BrandProtection #Tradeamrks

My biggest productivity hack: Eliminating distractions. Seems obvious. But it is much easier said than done. If you are being honest, how many times do you complete a task in a day without at least one distraction occurring? Distractions are problematic for two reasons: 1⃣ They require "mental switching" An interruption to your train-of-thought, and then having to get back on track, is energy zapping. It can lead to mental exhaustion. 2⃣ They can cause us to completely stop working on the task at hand. A simple distraction (think of a seeing a few new emails in your inbox) is often a "trojan horse" that takes us completely away from the current project and to something entirely different. ### To combat distractions during my day I do the following: ✔️ Wear noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones. This eliminates noise from my house (like my kids acting-a-fool) from interrupting my train-of-thought. ✔️ Put my phone on silent and upside down in another corner of the room. This eliminates the knee-jerk reaction to check text messages or social media when I hit a roadblock in what I am working on. ✔️ Never check emails or other messages until I complete the task at hand. This keeps my mind focused on the task at hand and not thinking about a new problem or issue that has just surfaced. ### I am always surprised at how much improved my productivity becomes when distractions are eliminated. The extra bonus? If I do a good job of minimizing distractions, I have a lot more energy to be present with my family when I am done with work. #deepwork #focus #distractions Image by Roberto Ferraro

Adidas has launched an all-out trademark war against any other clothing maker using stripes. The latest target? Wilson Sporting Goods. Last week, Adidas filed a 'Notice of Opposition' with the USPTO to block Wilson's trademark application for a logo that contains stripes. This is not the first stripe-related trademark battle for Adidas. It has been fighting (and sometimes losing) trademark cases where it tries to argue that its three-stripe trademark registration should prevent others from using stripes. The aggressive nature of the litigation effort is somewhat surprising, as many of the trademarks Adidas has pursued look very different. The overall strategy raises an eyebrow as to what the company is actually trying to accomplish. Ultimately, a company does have a duty to police and enforce trademark rights (if you do not, your rights can be narrowed or lost over time). That said, sometimes policing by larger companies starts to look a little more like bullying. Do you think Adidas has a point here or have they gone too far? #trademarks #brandprotection #trademarkenforcement

I run a side business in the summer. It is called: "Camp Dad." And it requires my entire schedule to be changed... I skip the gym, wake up earlier, and stay up later. By making these changes I can run my camp every afternoon on the beach with my 3 oldest kids. To be fair, I enjoy the time as much as my kids do. If you ever asked me why I wanted to start my own business... this is it. I fully believe the future of work is designing schedules around raising a family. It is so much better for my kids to have quality time with their siblings and me on the beach than to ship them off to a camp. Don't get me wrong... life isn't a complete party. This type of flexibility doesn't come without hard work. I will work harder than ever on my business this summer and continue to put in 10 hours+ of work a day. But the work pays off in spades when I am out in the waves with my kids. #worklifebalance #futureofwork #workfromhome

The USPTO has denied 97.3% of all trademark applications filed from overseas that it has reviewed since April 1st. (If those filings are made via the Madrid Protocol.) Why is this number so high? Because most US trademark filings made via the Madrid Protocol lack: 1. A proper US clearance search. In my experience, the vast majority of filings made in the US via the Madrid Protocol are done without a US clearance search having been completed. A search can help identify potential conflicts with other trademarks pre-filing. This allows adjustments to be made to an application to try to avoid a refusal due to a conflict. 2. A proper understanding of USPTO rules. In almost every Madrid Protocol refusal, the language used to describe a client's goods and/or services in the trademark application is found to be improper by the USPTO. If a US attorney was engaged to clean up the language pre-filing, such a refusal can be avoided. ### Ultimately, using the Madrid Protocol might be an easy way to file a trademark, but it will likely cost a client more in the long run than just hiring a US attorney to prepare and file an application directly. This is because it takes more time and effort to respond to a refusal than filing the application properly in the first place. Do you have any questions about Madrid Protocol applications? Put them in the comments. I am happy to answer them :). #InternationalTrademarks #TrademarkAttorneys #USPTO #Trademarks

Mondays are my favorite day of the week. Why? Because I spend weekends preparing to make them smooth. There is a lot of pushback in today's world about working on weekends. For most business owners (and many lawyers), doing some work on the weekend is necessary. For 16 years, I've worked about 4 hours each weekend day. Doing this makes my Mondays completely blissful. While everyone else is running around crazy busy... still cleaning up last week's messages while handling new requests... my inbox has a peaceful calm to it.   Setting aside time to work on the weekends consistently allows me to be: 1. In a good mood when dealing with new problems. 2. More available to clients who need to jump on a call. 3. Confident that I can clean up the overflow in my inbox the following weekend (which reduces stress). Do you have any techniques to avoid a "case of the Mondays"? #mondays #workflow #emailmanagement