It Was Staring Me Right in the Face!
It was staring me right in the face.
It's funny how your everyday life becomes so mundane that obvious factors are overlooked. I was an Over the Road truck driver for one of the major companies. My duties besides driving, making deliveries and maintaining the truck also included a lot of paperwork. The most dreadful part of my paperwork was my log book. It needed to be updated every time there was a Change of Duty Status. There are four categories which define your status, Off Duty - Sleeper Berth - On duty Driving and On duty not driving. My log book looked like a bad day on Wall Street as the book is done in graph style. For years I was keeping my logs updated and hated every second of it. While I drive I always was thinking of how to get back into the white collar life style I had lived many years prior. Just something to pass the time when on the open highway and knowing I still had 8 hours of driving to go before I was parked for the night and could get showered and a good meal. One day while driving through North Dakota going east from Bismark to Fargo I was again in my world of creative thinking. All of a sudden it dawned on me how all drivers favorite portion on their log book was being Off Duty. I pondered how this would look on T-Shirts and Truckers caps. I knew all drivers would be interested in wanting to proudly display that they were Off Duty. My excitement grew as I realized the other products that this could be placed on. I tried to determine which other occupations would be a good target market for wanting to be Off Duty. My list just kept going and my enthusiasm continued to grow.Frustration set in as I was in North Dakota and I live in Pennsylvania. Having 2 weeks before I was scheduled to be Off Duty, my 72 hours between 3 week shifts, I wanted to know how to get the registered trademark from the USPTO. As soon as I got home I went to the computer and looked on the trademark page to see if the term Off Duty was available. I was relieved to find that the last person to have this trademark abandoned it several years prior.
First I had my wife, Janis, draw the logo to my specs as she is an artist. After the first draft she made a professional looking logo that we could submit to the Trademark department of the USPTO. I went to their web site and filled out the necessary information as to my intent, and all the other information needed in acquiring an approved registration. I sent the application and logo attached with my $450.00 fee, non refundable if it was declined for any reason whatsoever.
I did more research and found out that most trademarks not submitted by a lawyer get rejected. My perseverance and determination, with the help of the reviewing attorney who handled my case answered any and all questions, helped me through the process.. Believe me I'm not afraid to ask questions. I hit a few snags and always resubmitted the correct information in the allotted time frame. Thirteen months later my trademark for Off Duty and my logo was approved. I was granted permission to display my logo on apparel items as stated in my intent to use.
I had already purchased a domain name for the internet to set up an online store. I had my products printed and had my stock available.. The business was now under way. At this time things are going really well and I no longer drive Over the Road. NO LOG BOOKS, even though they were my inspiration from looking at the phrase Off Duty for years. I get offers to buy the logo, lease the logo and for stores to put my products on their shelves. I wake up in my own bed and not in a sleeper berth. Life is good due to the fact I took my blinders off and looked around to see what I had to work with to improve my life.
The moral of the story is that it was staring me right in the face for many years. If I can, and did do it, so can you. Just take the blinders off. If you look at your life and what your doing there, it is a very good chance that it's Staring you Right in the Face.
Bryan D Marshall
http://www.offdutybrand.com
Happily married and self employed through the oddest of circumstances.
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