In my view, it is not only worth the effort, but is essentia anl risk minimising strategy for all small businesses, to have their business names registered as trademarks. A client of mine gave me permission to share her story, because she wants you to learn from her mistakes. She was using a tagline, “be the star that you are.”
She was right at the very beginning part of using this name and she asked me to obtain trademark protection. I thought it was a brilliant name, I was so excited. Unfortunately, when I did the trademark search, I discovered, to my horror, that somebody else already had it registered as a trademark. So I had to tell my client that if she used that name, she would end up infringing somebody else’s trademark.
What that means is, they could sue her for trademark infringement and if she had made any profits from using that name, she would have to pay it over to them. It was quite an emotional time, she was quite upset, because she thought “be the star that you are,” was a unique name that she had come up with.
Although I did feel sorry for her, I was not as upset as I would have been, if she had used it and then found out later that it was infringing. I was actually quite relieved for her that she had been sensible enough to get proper advice at an early stage and made sure that she wasn’t risking her business profits. I wonder what names you might be using that you haven’t checked to see whether or not somebody else has registered as a trademark.
Registering a business name as a trademark provides you with an insurance against infringing someone else’s trademark (having your own trademark registered is a complete defence to trademark infringement). Seeing the stress it causes my clients to discover they have been inadvertently infringing someone else’s trademark, has convinced me that it is definitely worth the effort to get your business name registered as a trade mark.
Book a complimentary phone call with Cathryn, by clicking this link or ask a question by email to website@acacialaw.com (only available to people with businesses based in Australia or New Zealand). She would love to chat to you about your IP and business legal questions.
Cathryn Warburton is the Legal Lioness. With more than 2 decades of experience behind her, she legally
bulletproofs her client’s businesses and protects them from business bullies. She is a multi-international award winning lawyer, trade mark attorney, patent attorney, author, mentor and keynote speaker.
