Most businesses start up with essentially nothing. No clients, no reputation. Slowly, you market your business and get some people to take a chance on your services or goods. From there, you start to build up some good will. Your customers like you, they like your product, they tell other people about your business, and you get more clients.
All of this good will is wrapped up in your brand. Your brand is a name or logo or slogan or any other feature or a combination of these that identifies your products and distinguishes it from a competitor’s products.
Your brand is often the most important asset that you have. We often ask people what would you rather own, all of Nike’s factories or their brand. To us, the answer is always, their brand.
If you are reading this before you have started your business, try to come up with a name or logo or slogan that creates a unique impression. Many businesses want to describe their products in their business name so that people know what they are selling. While this is tempting, try to avoid this. A generic description doesn’t leave much of an impression with customers. Nike is a great mark because Nike is a goddess of speed, strength, and victory. It makes you think that Nike sneakers can make you that goddess as well. Google is an excellent example of a completely fanciful name. It didn’t mean anything before Google used it, but now it is ubiquitous.
A trademark is part of the brand. A trademark can be the name or logo or slogan. The importance of registering your business name or logo or slogan cannot be overstated. Federal registration gives you trademark rights in all 50 states and US territories. This means that you can prevent others from using a trademark that is confusingly similar to yours. Because your trademark is registered, it is presumed to be a valid trademark in courts.
Because your brand identifies your business as providing certain products, it is important to make sure that your brand is consistent for people to easily recognize. If you keep changing your brand, then people will need to keep relearning your brand in order to identify your products.
There are many services that can monitor your trademark for you (at a slight fee, of course). If you are on a very tight budget, you can also set up google alerts to monitor your trademark.
In the unfortunate event that someone is using your trademark, you will want to make sure to enforce your mark. Typically the first step is to send out a cease and desist letter.
Please note that this information is shared as guidance only and is not intended to be legal advice for your particular business and circumstances. For more information on trademarks and to access ourPirate Fight Club® videos about trademarks, visit our youtube page.
You can also attend any of our FREEPirate Fight Club events, held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.