Protecting Your Business

I know what you may be asking... What is this post doing on this paranormal blog? As with anything business oriented, it is best to protect yourself and your endeavors as much as possible.

First off, let me say that there are many loop holes on the business end of the paranormal field. Protecting your name, services and personal assets need to be considered at all times. Am I just being paranoid? No. Absolutely not. I am just being cautious.

So, what can you do to protect your self? Well, are you on a paranormal team? Is your name trademarked? You may want to consider this ASAP. All it would take would be someone else to come along and do so. Once they get the trademark, they could request your refusal to use it. Like on services such as YouTube, Google, Amazon, Twitter, etc. Sure. You may be able to prove that you have been using the name for a while, but does that trump an official federal trademark?

Let's say you want to go with a trademark... Which one do you choose? Well, that is up to you really. You can file a domestic or international request. At the time of this post, the basics can range from around $300 to much higher.

The process to file a trademark is long and tedious. You have to stay on top of it at all times. It goes through a systematic order to get to what will help cover you. The ultimate goal I believe is a Registration Certificate. This allows you to sell services, merchandise with your name on it without someone infringing on you. This certificate is what will be requested of you if you decide someone else is using your name/logo without your permission.

What else can you do to protect yourself? Form an LLC. At the time of this post in the State of New Jersey, it costs around $125 to form one. Why is this important? This is put in place to protect your personal assets is case of a lawsuit. You do not need to put the "LLC" at the end of your name if you do not want to here in certain states I believe, but it will help cover you.

Another protective method is having release forms on hand. Forms that can be scalable under different circumstances. Are you doing an event? Have attendees sign the form. Conducting an investigation at a residence? The client needs to fill out and accept certain conditions.

The goal of this post is to show you that there are people out there that can hurt you financially or slander your name that you have laid claim to. Not everything I posted here will protect you 100%, but at least it's a start to covering your business.

DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind also, I am not a lawyer. Note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on.

Bigfoot.

Throughout time, man has been witness to many different encounters with unknown creatures. Yeti, lochness monster, chupacabra and many others. It would seem that biologists come forward on a daily basis with discovering new species. Whether it be a shark, centipede snake or the elusive Bigfoot.

Back about a month ago, I saw a report released by a team that they had indeed captured a Bigfoot. The code for it was "Daisy is in the box". I remember for weeks upon end I was watching a few of the Bigfoot evidence websites awaiting the findings of this so called capture. Sadly... it never came. Hoax? Most likely.

My question is this: What possesses someone(or Squatch group) to lay claim to something like this and not have the means to back it up? Why would they lie about finding a Bigfoot?

Fools. Idiotic fools. The only thing you do is just piss people off and make fools of yourselves. Your families must be real proud of you for doing that. Nice example you set for the kids also. Lying for 5 minutes of fame? That is seriously shallow.

Whether or not Big foot is real is yet to be truly determined. Many have supposedly seen him/her first hand. They have video, hair samples, footprint casts, photos and even audio of this mythical creature. Even police officers have stepped forward with claims that they to have witnessed these towering beasts first hand.

So, why hasn't anyone actually captured one yet? Are they THAT elusive? We see deer, elk, etc. all the time. They are elusive also, yes?

I seriously hope that people out there are not running around wearing costumes and deliberately trying to fool people. All it would take would to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a hunter and his loaded rifle to solve that mystery real quick.

Who knows... Maybe one day we will get to see a real Bigfoot in captivity. If we ever get to that point, I would hope they would film him, photograph him, document him and then let him go back into the wild.

Aliens.

Aliens. Do they truly exist? I think that there are infinite ideas that support the theory that they do. The universe is huge, and to think we are the only ones occupying this vast space is just self entitled nonsense.

Some may say that God created man, and that heaven and earth are unique to God's grand creation. While I do believe in a form of God, I do not think we are alone in the universe. It just doesn't make sense that our tiny planet is the only place in the universe that has living beings on it.

What about proof that aliens exist? Well, there have been numerous sightings over the years. Photographs, videos, documentation released by governments, etc. Most everyone in the paranormal community knows about the UFO incident at the ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Little men from outer space, crashed flying saucer, Air Force cover-up. Good times.

Lately, I have been watching how governments have been toying with peoples freedoms around the globe. Especially the United States. What if in the grand scheme of things, there were to be a full disclosure of alien visitors to the world relatively soon. What if the gun control laws, beefed up DHS dept, control of resources were some how related to a disclosure? What if the planet earth was is serious danger and the only way we could survive was intrusting an alien race to help save us?

Let's face a few facts, the government would not be to happy with some panic stricken yahoo breaking out their guns and firing almost immediately on aliens trying to make friendly contact. Could you imagine the implications of that scenario??? Full. Scale. Alien. Invasion. Yep, I said it.

Now, grant it. Our constitution is our constitution. This SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED... Ever. However, I ask all of my friends out there with firearms. Please do not shoot any aliens that could start a galactic war. If you can't handle first contact, just run away. Don't worry, nobody will judge you.

Another theory I keep hearing from various news sources is that aliens may have already made contact with us here on earth and that they are already living among us. Yeah, like the movie "They Live". Some even claim that the earth was created for an alien science experiment. Weird, huh?

Whatever the true answers are, nobody has the definitive proof yet. I have a feeling even if an alien spaceship were to land in the middle of central park in NYC, people still wouldn't believe it.