MofongoWare Merchandising for Latinas
Dr. Nutmeg's Femmebots® got accepted to the Latinas in Tech Entrepreneurship Program! Prep with us in this workshop about trademarks and “Spaceballs” style merchandising.
Welcome back to the FACTory! Tonight’s guest patients are Femmebots 8.0, 4.0, and 2.024 — they all recently got laid off by #TechCompany and came to Dr. Nutmeg for upgrades.
The Femmebots: Dr. Nutmeg, Dr. Nutmeg! We just got laid off by #TechCompany! Tell us what to do!
Dr. Nutmeg: Sounds like another meltdownload if I ever heard one, hehehe. Let’s go to the kitchen, mash all of your skills with some plantains, and make some ¡Mofongoware! Now we have one super Femmebot, version 10.0.
Femmebot 10.0: What’s up, Chingonas? I know what you’re thinking — How did I get this blue hair and where did the brown skin go? I don’t know, don’t ask me, I’m generated by AI here at The FACTory.
Dr. Nutmeg: You got that blue color because I’m known to be clumsy in the kitchen/lab — it looks like some of Femmebot 5.0’s animation skills got sprinkled into the masa!
Femmebot 10.0: Cool! That means I can animate characters, crunch and visualize data, search engine optimize blog posts, AND edit video. That’s a lot of complimentary skills that can withstand the winds of unemployment, under-employment, and entrepreneurial growth!
Dr. Nutmeg: Fabulous. As soon as you pass the Turing Test, you will be ready to work for another #TechCompany!
Femmebot 10.0: Pft. One Femmebot with all those skills could be running the #Tech Company…especially since we just got accepted to the Latinas in Tech Entrepreneurship Program.
Dr. Nutmeg: Hmm. None of those skills can run a #TechCompany, not even the data analysis. Looks like we might need to run little Miss 10.0 through the humility filters and the Merchandising workshop we promised back in December!
What is Merchandising?
As “Yogurt the Wise” explains in “Spaceballs,” Merchandising can be defined within the purview of the entertainment industry as the manufacture or production and sale of a film's or television's program name, artwork, logo, characters, or other elements related to the film or program.
If you search-and-replace “Spaceballs” for “Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots®,” you’ll get:
Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® the T-Shirt!
Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® the lunchbox!
Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® the coloring book!
How does a trademark help with merchandising?
Femmebot 10.0: We have a registered trademark for our brand Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® established 2019, but we haven't used it because of the pandemic. That’s a problem, right? Cuz I learned from a Feb. 24, 2024 WALA workshop that you have to file a statement of use within six months in order for it to be recognized.
Dr. Nutmeg: The USPTO site shows the green trademark ribbon on it, which means it’s active, and it’s been active for the last five years. See? You don’t know everything.
Femmebot 10.0: Whew! Just wanted to make sure because there is a filmmaker who offered to feature a poster of Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® in a scene of a film he will be shooting this summer. The idea would be similar to this Tara McPherson art in the movie “Juno.”
Do we ask the filmmaker to pay us a percentage of his profits?
Dr. Nutmeg: No. We’re not Barbie, geez!
Femmebot 10.0: Can we use our trademark to make money?
Dr. Nutmeg: Yes and no. Depends on the classes covered.
Classes covered by Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® trademark
electronic desktop publishing; entertainment information; entertainment services in the nature of comedy shows; entertainment services in the nature of development, creation, production and post-production services of multimedia entertainment content; entertainment services, namely, a multimedia program series featuring comedy, action and adventure distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; entertainment services, namely, providing a web site featuring photographic, audio, video and prose presentations featuring animation; entertainment and educational services, namely, the presentation of seminars, workshops and panel discussions, and ongoing television and radio shows all in the field of gender equality…It goes on and on, just click on the USPTO site to see the rest of the myriad classes our trademark covers!
Conclusion
Femmebot 10.0: If we display an animated Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® poster in a film, this film or any other, especially as it pertains to gender equality, the exposure will increase the value of the trademark.
Our team will be in a better position to merchandise products associated with the brand like “Spacebars.'“
Is this our practice pitch for tomorrow’s Latinas in Tech Entrepreneurship Program? Hmmm….nervous now.
If you would like to see our clumsy “behind the scenes” of self-teaching and learning at Downtown Orlando’s Melrose Center, click on the video below!
Some notes gathered on the Interwebz in case they are helpful for subscribers…
Trademark rights are acquired in names, logos, symbols and other marks by any person or business entity by using it in the normal course of business (for instance on a tag or label for merchandise being sold to the public) or by filing an application for registration of the mark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Merchandising can be defined within the purview of the entertainment industry, as the manufacture or production and sale of a film's or television's program name, artwork, logo, characters, or other elements related to the film or program.
Fembots vs TheFemmebots — Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots®
Commonly, the owner or producer of an artistic work licenses or offers the right to produce and merchandise these products that carry any of these artistic elements. The owner or the producer gets payment normally in the form of a royalty on each product sold, in return for that permission.
This licensing agreement is more or less similar to a rental contract. The owner of the film or television program grants the permission to use the elements in that film or television shows on certain products for a specific period. The owner may agree with manufacturer to use the elements in that film or television shows in a specified distribution network for a certain payment.
If it is a name, logo, character, or other parts of a film or show, which is a licensable element (example: Barbie), it must first be legally protected under the trademark or copyright laws. These elements are referred to as the "property", and the owner of this property is called the "licensor", while the manufacturer is called the "licensee".
Licensing is based primarily upon the legal protection given under trademarks. Names, graphic depictions, slogans and other elements that vary from a company's line of product from those of a competitor can be trademarked through the Patent and Trademark Office.
Trademark protection is vital because a film or television program after licensing will become an apparel brand, a toy brand, or a brand of stationery, and many others.
Ding! AI is changing the above. How is this biz model changing as a result? This Sept. 29, 2023 “Legal Sidebar” by the Congressional Research Service mentions Copyright, but not trademarks.
A secondary method of legal protection is offered under the copyright law. Copyright law protects artistic creations like music, text, scripts, screenplays, and artwork.
Blockchain changed the above as well. Anything transmitted with a time stamp becomes “published.”
The advantages of merchandising can be categorized into two broad areas:
The producer needs advertising to educate consumer about their products and to generate a consumer awareness and interest for the product.
Merchandising helps producer to support other marketing activities that is attached with the film or show. Such marketing activities are promotions to exhibitors and cinemagoers, and electronic advertising at retail level and with broadcasters.
Merchandising helps to create an excitement and eagerness in the minds of people for the product. Thus, merchandising expands the total number of people who hear about the film, television shows and further reminds about the existence of the product in the market.
Therefore, merchandising plays a crucial role in gaining greater recognition and preference for a filmmaker or program producer's products.
Television program series producers and filmmakers are entitled to get an amount as royalty form licensees by selling his/her licensed merchandising items.
Money raised from these royalties can offset part of the rising costs of film and television program production.
In addition to the royalty, the producer may also receive a minimum guarantee amount as advance payment from the licensee. Another benefit is that the licensor has trademark protection that prevents others from exploiting his/her logo or characters.