Any worthwhile trademark companies working in the U.S. worth their salt can tell you what a post-registration statement of use is. In the United States, a Post Registration Statement of Use is filed between the fifth and sixth years of an ongoing 10-year trademark, proving that the trademark is indeed remaining in use.

When weighing the cost to register a trademark and trademark services, it’s best to think of what American trademark companies have succeeded before. When talking about American trademarks, there are few as iconic and impactful as the trademark for Coca-Cola.

If there is a lesson about growing a strong brand and doing it the right way through trademark services, it's Coca-Cola! The Coca-Cola trademark is internationally recognizable, and an example trademark companies should keep in mind.

They filed their first trademark application in 1892. This was the year when they were selling nine drinks a day. I call it a lemonade stand with a dream. They started small but knew that if they were to build this business into something that matters, they have to do a few things.

They had to incorporate a business, relying on trademark services to keep that distinct from other businesses like it. They had to protect the recipe and they had to protect their brand. And that's exactly what they did. They built a really strong foundation for building Coca-Cola into what it is today.

The Cost to Register a Trademark: How Intellectual Property can (theoretically) last forever

Interestingly, intellectual property is the only type of property that can last in theory forever. You can renew it and renew it and renew it and renew it and that's what the Coca-Cola company’s been doing since 1892.

As long as the trademark remains in use, and can be proven to be in use with a Post-Registration statement of Use, it can be renewed every 10 years indefinitely. As long as the company’s profitable and you can keep producing the trademarked good or service there are no limits or restrictions to how many times this can be renewed.

They've been renewing the same trademark registration they got all the way back then. And right now, their brand itself just a brand alone is worth over seventy billion dollars. Not their factories, not their merchandise, not the drinks, not their way of delivery. None of it. Just the brand itself is worth over seventy billion dollars. If that's not the lesson of what you can do with a brand, I don't know what is.

Trademark Services: Starting Small and Dreaming Big

And you may not become as big as that, I understand that your brand may not last for several hundred years, but there's still a lesson. Because we as entrepreneurs should look up to those who became successful. There are lessons to be learned from their successes and failures, and seeing how they endured being the industrial institutions they’ve become, and how trademark services played a part in that.

And like I said, they started really small. A lemonade stand with a dream. If you can't emulate a company like Coca-Cola now, that's okay. Try to emulate them when they were small and see what became of them.

And really, if you plan to stay small, if you don't dream of building your business into something that matters, you got no place running a business. You're not an entrepreneur. You just got yourself a job because nobody else wanted to hire you. And yes, that could take you day in and day out. But really, you only have one life. You're spending all your time working on your business. Might as well build something that matters.

The Cost to Register a Trademark and Bringing up a Business: More like a Baby or a Pet?

And for that, you need a brand. You need a brand that you own. You need a brand that you protect. I hope this story inspires you not just to trademark your brand, but to look at your business as something that's going to grow. There are many analogies of things to nurture and grow: plants, pets, and even babies. Which best applies to raising a business?

I've heard this recently, I love this analogy, you can build your business as a pet or you can build your business as a child, as a baby. And the problem is a lot of business owners that treat their businesses as pets. Year in and year out, their business is the same. It may grow a little bit but it may grow older. But it doesn't really evolve, it doesn't really grow.

Right, a pet is a pet. It doesn't grow independently. It doesn't grow into its own powerhouse. Whereas, when you treat your business as a child, yes initially it's a baby. Right, you have to do whatever it takes to grow it. But then, several years later, what happens, they become independent.

They start thinking on their own, they start doing things on their own and then they grow and more. And then they become smarter than you. They do things that you have no idea people could do. Your business, like that child, will grow beyond what it initially began and might not only outlive you but remain a thriving business long after you’re gone.

The founder of Coca-Cola, John Pemberton, began selling his drink in 1892, and would have no idea of the sheer success his soft drink had in the following century and up until today. This is the kind of success story trademark companies love to tell.

That's what having a real entrepreneurial mindset is all about. You're supposed to build something that will become bigger than you. You're supposed to build something that will become greater than you. And like I said, this Coca-Cola story, now that's what it empowers you to do.