How to trademark your TikTok phrase and protect your brand [Video]

So, you had a video go viral and it had a very specific phrase, like “Hawk Tuah on that thang” or “very demure, very mindful.”

Sure, maybe a viral phrase isn’t the most sophisticated form of humor, and maybe the trend doesn’t promise long-term relevance or a particularly enduring appeal. But viral phrases can lead to a huge influx of brand deals and, if you’re smart about it, merchandise sales.

Take Jools Lebron, the TikTok creator who popularized the viral phrase “very demure, very mindful.” Because of the phrase’s success, she could finance her transition. She went on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and she made videos with Verizon and Southwest Airlines. But, a few days after the phrase took off, a Washington State man named Jefferson Bates filed to trademark it himself, despite it not actually being his phrase. According to legal documents obtainedby NBC News and TMZ, he didn’t even name Lebron in …