Letters of Intent

Pankaj Raval (00:03)
All right, welcome back to Letters of Intent. We have a special episode today that's a little bit different than normal. we get into the nitty gritty of deals, but today we're talking about current events that you guys may have been seeing on social media. Specifically, we are gonna be episode maxxing today. Sahil, tell us a little bit more about what this topic is today and why it is relevant.

Sahil (00:17)
Yeah

Listen, we don't want to get frame-mogged. So we've been paying attention to Clavicular here, who has taken the internet by storm. He's talking about Looksmaxxing. He was just interviewed by the New York Times, which titled their article, Handsome at Any Cost. To be honest, this seems like a very self-destructive influence on society. I mean, we're talking about prioritizing looks over everything else, including ⁓ contributions to society.

Pankaj Raval (00:23)
You can hang attention to Clavik-

He's talking about looks maxing. He was just interviewed by the New York Times, which titled their article, Handsome at Any Cost. To be honest, this seems like a very self-destructive influence on society. I mean, we're talking about prioritizing looks over everything else, including ⁓ contributions to society

or any other kind of metric that seems like it could be.

Sahil (00:48)
or any other kind of metric that seems like it could be

not self-centered. But this is having a huge impact and it's hard to ignore. mean, in fact, our vocabulary has expanded. Today we know what mogging is, we know what a chad is, we know what looksmaxxing is, and we can't ignore it. And we also can't ignore it.

Pankaj Raval (00:53)
not self-centered. this is having a huge impact and it's hard to ignore. mean in fact our vocabulary has expanded. Today we know what mocking is, we know what a chat is.

We know what post-maxxing is and we can't ignore it. Well, to be honest,

know, I did find out about that about 15 minutes ago after I was talking and researching. Because the truth is, I don't think I've really felt old many times. know, I am, you know, my 40s now and I try to stay young and hip. honestly, this new trend these kids really on social media, it's just.

Sahil (01:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Pankaj Raval (01:32)
a whole different world. I don't know how you feel about it.

Sahil (01:35)
Totally. I mean, this

is a completely different world. The algorithms are definitely rewarding the most extreme behavior. I mean, you're talking about someone who apparently hammered his jaw, had his jaw hammered into place, promoting extreme forms of plastic surgery. So I don't think that this is a very healthy influence on society,

Pankaj Raval (01:50)
forms of plastic surgery. So I don't think that this is a healthy influence

Sahil (01:56)
I don't think it's one that we can ignore either. I mean, these are the next generation of entrepreneurs, these creators who are building personal brands and ⁓ they're going to have

Pankaj Raval (01:56)
I don't think it's one that we can ignore either. These are the next generation of entrepreneurs, these creators who are building personal and they're going to have...

Sahil (02:07)
assets, they're going to have intellectual property, they're building brands that can be licensed. And I wanted to ask you, Pankaj, as someone who's an expert in IP, should Clavicular register a trademark for looksmaxxing or has he already?

Pankaj Raval (02:08)
They're going to have intellectual property and building brands that can be licensed. And I wanted to ask you, Bunkage, as someone who's an expert in IP, should Clavicular register a trademark for Look's Maxing or has he already?

That's a great question. So let's do a little dive into this, Sahil, and actually see in real time what he's done and whether he has protected the name. Because he's kind of

come to define this whole genre. There's a whole subculture here of looksmaxxing I just feel silly even saying the term, but it's really a culture of like these guys, I think on Discord, I forget where they kind of talk about this, but there's a lot on Reddit. have this whole community around people trying to like optimize their...

looks right like it was a very narcissistic clearly narcissistic but not unabashedly narcissistic movement right and here they are trying to like maximize their looks and this guy's leading the way and he's done some crazy things right like he's taking meth to stop eating and like he said he hammered his jaw like it sounds a little bit borderline right like it sounds a little borderline some personality disorder you know like i think there's probably gonna be some study of him the future of like you know what really is going on his mind because

I think he's taken narcissism to a whole other level.

Sahil (03:27)
know,

today, people are asking him who he's going to vote for president. They're not asking, you know, people who have studied political science and economics. And I mean, it's remarkable to be asking someone who is completely focused just on improving his appearance and has led a movement to improve appearance, who you're going to vote ⁓ to operate.

Pankaj Raval (03:27)
Right, right, right, right. people who have studied political science and economics. I mean, it's remarkable to be asking someone who's completely focused just on improving his appearance and his lead of movement to improve appearance, who you're going to vote to operate

one of the most complex.

Sahil (03:52)
one of the most complex

governmental structures in the world. So I think he, but he's landed on every major platform and we can't ignore that. he's having a huge impact on society. He's being recognized by major and news stations. So let's dive in, you know? I mean, this, he's building a huge business. Let's dive in. mean,

Pankaj Raval (03:53)
governmental structures in the world. So it's landed on every major platform and we can't ignore that. he's having a huge impact on society. He's being recognized by

news stations, so let's dive in. He's building a huge business, let's dive in.

Sahil (04:15)
If we were advising him, I'd say, let's get that trademark, right?

Pankaj Raval (04:15)
If we were advising him, I'd say, let's get that trademark, right? Yeah, exactly, right, exactly. Let's look at that trademark. And apparently he hasn't yet. Yeah, mean, right now we'll see, like, Ghost Global the, there's two trademarks that are t-shirts, but we don't know who owns Ghost Global.

Sahil (04:22)
put it on some t-shirts.

Pankaj Raval (04:33)
registered in Delaware. So Delaware actually is difficult to tell who's the owner of an entity. We could actually look into corporates, let's say real let's see, share this tab. say, we know ghost global, you who might be the LLC there? Ghost global. There is Delaware. Here we go.

Sahil (04:37)
Mmm.

Pankaj Raval (04:55)
ghost of the gram.

Harvard Business Services, yeah, we don't have much information about Ghost Global. Considering how anonymous the registration is, could be. Well, actually here it is, interesting. Open Corporates does provide trademark registrations too, and they're actually Ghost of the Gram. That's their, so we could actually find out more here. Let's see who's the owner of this.

Sahil (05:01)
Considering how anonymous the registration is, it could be him or an entity connected to him.

Pankaj Raval (05:17)
we just know the company but they have this trademark ghost of the gram

So this ghost of the gram is associated with Holy Ghost, a prominent Instagram influencer. So yeah, not him, right? So it's interesting. he registered looks maxing, but no one has it realm. Someone tried to a while back looks mark was abandoned.

Sahil (05:28)
Interesting.

Pankaj Raval (05:38)
And for probably not the best reasons, you they didn't respond to the trademark application. It was pretty easy stuff to fix. So, you know, could be an opportunity for us to jump on a valuable trademark because this seems to be a pretty popular term. really only gaining notoriety. And if you think about cosmetics brands are really taking off right now.

Sahil (05:46)
That's right.

Pankaj Raval (05:56)
I mean, this is when you talk about branding. mean, this is this is the hot brand right now that everyone's talking about. And if you now sell cosmetics with this, who knows, you know what you could do and how you could leverage it. So I wanted to explore. Are you saying that someone has registered the trademark for something else just for apparel? Exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's exactly what's happened. So someone's registered for something apparel. Someone did file a trademark year for

Sahil (06:05)
So I wanted to explore, are you saying that someone has registered the trademark but for something else, just for apparel?

Pankaj Raval (06:21)
grooming preparations for men, but their trademark was abandoned. So now, you know, that that's available as well, but yeah, exactly Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So what would be the reason to do that?

Sahil (06:27)
So if Clavicular hasn't registered this trademark yet, there's still an opportunity to register the trademark for something that is not clothing. Okay. And what's the benefit? What would be the reason to do that?

Pankaj Raval (06:44)
Well, you know, now you could now you have rights in the name right now. Once you have a trademark, you have a presumption that you own the name that you own the brand and people have to fight that. They may be able to say, well, we're using the term earlier or maybe it's a, you know, they they could argue against it. But at least you have the presumption by having the trademark that you you have the rights. So Is it better to have the trademark before you?

Sahil (07:03)
So, is it better to have the trademark before you put

that name, let's say, on a t-shirt or some kind of promotional material?

Pankaj Raval (07:06)
that name let's say on a t-shirt or some kind of

Yeah absolutely like always better to have a trademark than not to have a trademark. using the mark in commerce first is good because now you've established common law rights but you know having a federal trademark is ideal because now your rights even if you're only in like you know the southwest of

the US, have rights to expand throughout the country. And then, you could potentially use that application to file in other countries as well. So you could really leverage that market to a really valuable, viable business by filing a trademark now.

Sahil (07:40)
I kind of like thinking about the difference between common law rights and trademark registration as a sword and a shield, because you have a shield when you introduce common law rights by putting your mark in commerce, but you get a sword when you actually file the trademark registration. Is that correct? That then you're able to file lawsuit against someone enforce more of monopolistic rights over the name?

Pankaj Raval (08:03)
Right exactly exactly. It's a good analogy. You know, it is a sword in a shield because

the trademark suppose defensive and offensive, right? You have the right to file lawsuits. You can enforce it. additional remedies that you have that you wouldn't have a federal trademark. And also then you have to kind of prove a lot more, you know, fundamentally. Also, there's like, you know, in terms of damages, you have to kind of actual damages. And that could be expensive with a common law mark. But if you have a federal mark now, you can actually

claim remedies and also attorney's fees if you if you bring that case in federal court. I think it's fair to say if you want to IP-maxx and you only get frame-mogged by some other attorney, you need to call Carbon Law Group. You could say that I wouldn't recommend it, but you could.

Sahil (08:35)
So I think it's fair to say if you want to IP Max and you don't want to get frame-mogged by some other IP attorney, you need to call Carbon Law Group.

Well, thank you all joining us for this very special episode of

Letters of Intent. I'm gonna go hammer my jaw before the next episode and we will see you all back here.

Pankaj Raval (08:57)
gonna go hammer my job?

My looksmaxxing days behind me. Oh, unfortunately, he popped up on my feet again today. And talking loss.

And he's like, I can't even repeat what he said about it. The question was, would you rather lose your hair or an appendage of your body? And he says a certain appendage of your body. And I was like, wow, OK, well. So yeah, mean, it's a whole different world. And maybe who knows?

Sahil (09:12)
Yeah, what's the solution? Yeah.

Okay.

Wow.

But what's the point of the hair? Or what's the point of the appendage? Sorry, what's the point of the appendage?

Wow.

Pankaj Raval (09:37)
Maybe a lot of this is for clicks, know, I mean, he knows what is getting clicks right now. People seem to be really engaged by this, by this content, and men, follow we'll see how where it goes. I have a feeling it's not going to end well.

Sahil (09:51)
How many, know what? We say that too. We look at a number of potential clients and often come to that conclusion. So those are times where we step in. And I think if Clavicular came to us, it would be no different. We would say, look, let's focus on building your IP. Let's IP max. Let's get your contracts in order, your corporate governance in order.

Pankaj Raval (10:11)
Let's

Sahil (10:17)
You've got a chance to build a serious business here. Let's focus on the positive. No, we want to mog. Yeah, mugging is good. Yeah, we're trying to mog the other attorneys. Yeah. Yeah.

Pankaj Raval (10:21)
not mog it up, you know, let's not mog it up. my god, want to, we are mugging. ⁓ Cut that last part. I sound like I don't know anything. Okay, so yeah, let's, let's mog it up. Let's mog it up.

Sahil (10:35)
Let's mog

it heard it here first. Thank you all for joining us on this very special episode of Letters of Intent. Stay tuned.

Pankaj Raval (10:43)
Stay tuned.