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After a lot of soul searching and naming discussions, you finally
have a new name for your next product line or service offerings.
Now what do you do, realizing of course from the naming process
itself all the rights had in some of the names you considered.
While it is
almost intuitively obvious that for a new company name your first
step is to go down to the county business office or the secretary
of state to register a business, for many it is really not obvious
what you do with product names for protection. So here are some
recommended steps:
- Use it properly
from the start. Put a small TM next to the name (or SM if you
prefer for Service Mark), especially the first time you use it
on a website, box, wrapper or brochure. In the small print below,
put a statement XYZ is a trademark of ABC. You are then putting
the world on notice that you claim trade rights in this name.
(Hopefully you properly checked first that no one else in your
industry has made prior claims or you are potentially in big trouble).
- Alert all
your marketing, creative and production people about the name
and its proper usage.
- If you are
able to secure a matching domain name, claim it and point it at
the right place on your corporate website.
- File for
a registered trademark as soon as you have the mark in use, with
the USPTO. A lawyer is recommended for this to make sure you get
the paperwork right and the best possible coverage. Similarly
with other agencies in other countries. (See International
Trademark Offices). This will take a while to
get approved, but it is the filing date that is important.
- If you are
not going to use the name publicly for a few months, you should
file an Intent to Use trademark application instead.
- Plan a proper
product launch. Brochures, coffee cups, T-shirts, press releases,
show announcements, trade show demos, etc. go a long way to getting
the word out loud and clear. This not only promotes the new product
line or service offering, it also helps to establish the name
as a product brand with specific usage date stamps.
- Study what
the big guys do. Have you looked around your kitchen? Read a box
of cereal carefully and notice where the TM's and ®'s appear
and what it says in the "mouse print" below.
- Decide on
a specific logo, font or at least look and feel for the name.
Later you can perhaps trademark the logo too, just like company
names.
(*)
It is strongly recommended that you do not register any domain names
through your web hosting company - so they can never hold your website
hostage and you can move to another hosting service (or even bring
it in-house) at any time. Similarly, you can change domain registrars
without having to change your hosting company.
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