Mark The Occasion

Finally, Peggy Jean’s Pies has an official trademark. We solidified our relationship with the United States Patent and Trademark Office last week and now it is social media official. Our application was filed in early 2021, so it took around 14 months to be offered the final rose from the trademark people, but we’ve happily accepted.

And honestly, you might be wondering why we waited so long to get this task done. And to that, I would say: DO YOU NOT KNOW US BY NOW? I don’t doubt that some people file their trademark and then start their business, but I would guess most small businesses wait a bit before proceeding with this next step. It isn’t a quick or cheap process, as most trademark attorneys are fairly expensive for their expertise. Because I’m a licensed attorney in Missouri, I filed our paperwork even though I’ve never filed a trademark application before. (I figured the worst that could happen is that the application would be rejected and returned for correction. Surprisingly, it wasn’t terribly difficult once I set my expectations to a mountain of bureaucratic paperwork and tedious question answering.)

So, I started with trademarking our name and here’s the process: we file paperwork with our intended trademark; it’s reviewed by the legal team at the United States Patent and Trademark Office to ensure it doesn’t replicate or closely resemble any other registered mark; it’s published for public comment should any other entity oppose our use of it; and finally, if all goes well, the trademark is issued.

If you search for “pies” in the trademark database, there are 3,383 entries (both live and dead trademarks). Among the most entertaining: Hellpie; Killa Pie; Shuga Pie; and Pie Felicia. I spent a significant amount of time looking at all the registrations completely out of curiosity - and to map out my trademarking plans for phrases key to PJP. It was also important to search “Peggy Jean’s” to see what was already registered and this was the only dicey part. Can you imagine how unfortunate it would have been if there were a Peggy Jean’s Anything already in existence. Woof. Thankfully, there was nothing already registered or any other mark that might be close enough to raise a dispute.

I’ve already filed an application for World Pie Domination, so hopefully that will arrive in 2023. And while I can get all that done, I can’t even figure out how to make the little “TM” next to our name on the computer keyboard. Go figure. Thankfully, my daughter made one for me in Canva just so I could see it and we could mark the occasion…