A fashion designer went viral on TikTok after sharing how she got her payback on a man who asked her to work for “over [unpaid] 100 hours.”
In her video, TikTok user @notellie111 said that she spent an exorbitant amount of time designing clothes for an unnamed man, who refused to pay or credit her. As a result, @notellie111 said that she filed a trademark for his brand.
“When you spent over 100 hours designing clothes for this [guy’s] company and he accidentally doesn’t pay or credit you so you accidentally file a trademark for his brand and become the owner of the name,” she wrote via text overlay.
@notellie111 Oops! #fashion ♬ RAGE – scraizis
In the accompanying video caption, however, @notellie111 assured viewers that her actions weren’t truly an accident. “Oops!” she wrote ironically.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @notellie111 via TikTok comment. As of Friday evening, her TikTok had amassed over 402,300 views. And, in the comments, many viewers praised @notellie111 for taking back what was rightfully hers.
“Queen behavior,” one viewer wrote.
“THAT’s the BEST REVERSE UNO CARD EVER,” another wrote.
“And buy the website domain if you can,” a third user advised. To this comment, @notellie111 responded: “I think he lost the domain bc he quit paying for it lol.”
But not everyone applauded @notellie111’s business move. Some noted that she could actually get in trouble for admitting that she knew the brand was in use before filing the trademark.
“digital footprint is real,” one user warned.
“if he can prove first use in commerce, he could challenge you and potentially sue as well,” another added.
“I’ve heard this doesn’t hold up in a court of law if he can demonstrate using it before you, make sure to check on that,” a third person advised.
According to Business News Daily, trademarking a company’s name is not as easy as one might think. First, you need to check that the name you want to trademark isn’t already in use. You then have to apply and file for a trademark, they report.
“While this sounds straightforward, it can be complex,” the writer warned. “Iguana Ice Cream and Iguana’s Ice Cream might be too similar, for example. It can also mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are similar.” To make the process easier, it encouraged people to consider hiring a trademark attorney to assist with the process.
