Many business owners create online courses and online programs, the question is should you protect these with trademark registrations? You might be a business coach, and as part of your package, you might sell an online course to help people grow their confidence. Or you might be a mechanic, and there’s a particular widget inside the engine which is very expensive, and you might create a video to show your customers how to keep this thing clean in between services.
So the answer to the question really is, if you’re the mechanic, those videos are probably not your core business and that’s not the main thing that you need trademark protection for. So, you’re probably quite safe not to get trademark protection for that. Unless it’s something that is a core part of your business, your money is better spent getting trademark protection for your mechanics services. In my business, I create a lot of different courses to help people with different aspects of small business legal things. So I might have a course called, Common Legal Mistakes in Small Business, or, Five Top Tips for Small Business. Those names I wouldn’t bother trademarking, because they’re really generic and descriptive.
If somebody else, by some miracle, managed to get those registered themselves, I don’t care because I would just change the name of my course, it’s not my brand. But, I do have a course called Bulletproof Your Brand and that is a core part of my business. My brand is Bulletproof and includes things like Bulletproof Your Business, Bulletproof Your Brand, Bulletproof Your Contracts and as a result the word bulletproof is a core part of my business. So I have the word bulletproof registered as a trademark. I registered bulletproof, but then I can add some descriptive words so I don’t need the expense of registering Bulletproof Your Brand, Bulletproof Your Business, or Bulletproof Your Workshop. I can just get bulletproof, and then add on those extra descriptions.
So, should you protect the name of your course? First, is your main business name protected with a trademark? Many people wanna protect their course names, but they haven’t protected their main brand and your first priority should be your main brand. I operate under The Legal Lioness, and Acacia Law, which are both taken care of. Then, your second question is, is the name just a description, How to Stay Fit in the Summer Months, or the Winter Months, is not worth it.
Other people probably use similar words, and similar terms so it’s not really gonna benefit you. If it’s something unique, and it’s something that’s part of your brand, and what you’re known for, then yes, definitely. That’s the kind of thing that you want to protect. I wish you good luck with it, my name is Cathryn Warburton and I am The Legal Lioness.
