Our newsletter, The Sky Report, addresses trademarks and how business owners need to think about them. Click here:  "Don't use trademark as a verb:What is important in trademark law".

Protect Your Brand

Branding is the development of a company's name, trademarks, domains, and other intellectual property such that the company has a unique and recognizable identity. A company's brand can be closely tied to a company's goodwill. Goodwill is the reputation of a company for the goods or services that it provides. A company that has strong goodwill and a recognizable brand will be very valuable.

Protecting that brand can be critical to safeguarding the value of a company. A company can work hard at its services or in providing excellent products, only to have that goodwill undermined if it could suddenly no longer use the name with which it has done business. Imagine building a business for two or three years and building your company's goodwill and then getting a cease and desist letter to stop using your company's name and website domain, because you infringe on a Federally registered trademark. That happens frequently and it is devastating.

The best way to protect your brand is to do so from the beginning. Consulting with an attorney as to how to protect your domains and trademarks is a crucial and basic step in creating a brand. Large corporations will spend a considerable amount of time developing brands in secret. When they are nearly ready to use they brand, they will file multiple trademark registration applications to ensure that they have the rights to that brand. Small business owners won't be able to spend that much money but they can take similar steps in ensuring that their domains and trademarks are protected.