Over/Under

I spent the better part of the day working on trademark application paperwork, lest you think my life to be glamorous on any level. Over the years, some have questioned my decision to be the captain of the PJP ship rather than be a lawyer in full-time practice. And to that, I would say that the day-to-day of growing a business is harder than any days I had in 12 years of legal practice…and 100% more entertaining. Also, you would be surprised how often the two worlds collide to our benefit. Business lawyers are expensive, so that I can be PJP’s lawyer not only saves us money but it also ensures our legal representation will love PJP and protect PJP’s interests ardently.

But back to trademark applications - they are entirely boring, but entirely necessary to protect the interests of a growing brand. So I’ve been on a long path to trademark the things that make PJP uniquely PJP. And because the government is understaffed and under the general weight of bureaucracy, it takes MONTHS for progress to happen. When there is advancement, it is the highlight of my week. True Story. Also, learning the nuance of trademark work is new to me and since i’m a nerd at heart, I’m here for the research work it involves.

(But don’t expect to see the tiny “tm” next to Peggy Jean’s Pies now on our stickers and bags. I don’t even know how to make that happen on my keyboard. A logo redesign may be our next project.)

And before you think Jason was living a significantly more glamorous life over at our other store today, just know that he spent an hour on the phone with Google trying to figure out why it does’t list both store addresses when you Google us. And do you what an hour on the phone gets you? Google’s promise to mail you a postcard so we can verify the address. I guess once the postcard arrives, Jason calls Google? Which, for Google, seems oddly low-tech. A postcard? Honestly, I would expect a Google drone to fly over within 15 minutes of the conversation to verify our multi-store existence.

(And often people mention to us that Google doesn’t show both addresses, so at least we can say we are just waiting for the postcard to fix this all. Except our mail situation is there is very sketchy, so my confidence in the elusive postcard is tremendously low.)

So now we wait for application approvals and postcards. Should we do the over/under on the arrival of either within the next six months? I bet you anything we see that trademark before we ever see that postcard in our mailbox at the location. But no bets on if it ends up in Buff City Soaps mailbox, because that is probably the safest bet out there…