Trademark News & Screw-ups George Clooney sells his tequila company for up to $1bn

Newsflash: George Clooney is an actor, a celebrity. He's not, I repeat, he's not a professional liquor manufacturer. In fact, he admits to have started his tequila brand by accident some 4 years ago. He and his co-founders found a distiller in Mexico and instructed the distiller to create tequila that "tasted great and didn't burn going down." So what exactly did George Clooney and his team just sell to Diageo for $1,000,000,000.00? In case you're lost in zeros, it's one billion dollars. What they sold was basically the brand. Now, here's the kicker. Casamigos tequila brand was launched in 2013. Guess when they filed their trademark application? May 9, 2011. A year and a half BEFORE launch. I don't know how much they would have been able to sell the brand for if it wasn't properly trademarked, but I can guarantee you, it wouldn't have been for a billion crispy dollars. If there ever was an example how creating, building, and protecting a brand creates a massively valuable asset, it's this. It's absolutely fascinating! You and your friend come up with a brand, you trademark it 19 months before launch, you reach some level of success with your brand, which at that point is well protected, and you get an offer to sell the brand off for a bazillion dollars. I don't know about you, but I think they're feeling pretty good about their investment in trademarking now. What do you say?

The video below features Andrei Mincov's commentary of this article.



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