Brand Protection Checklist for Start-ups

Congratulations, you’ve made the exciting decision to launch a new venture!

Have you decided on a brand and taken steps to protect it? If not, here’s a checklist of things you should consider.

What is your brand?

Every business has a brand. You might have many! Brands can include business names logos, slogans, brand colours, shapes. Often, in all the chaos of starting a new business or launching a new product, business owners forget to get trademark protection for their brands. This article explains why it’s essential to protect your brand.

Use our checklist to help you through the most important steps of establishing and protecting your new business brand:

⬜ Choose a business name and check availability

Brainstorm name ideas, research the market and industry listings, check out your competition, the internet and search the trademark register to ensure that your name or a confusingly similar name is not already in use.

Is your business local or international? Check international trademark registries too, if you intend to use your trademark overseas..

Note that it’s likely that similar names and logos to yours may already exist. As long as they haven’t been used or registered as trademarks for products or services that are confusingly similar to yours, you should be safe to proceed to use your brands and look at securing trademark protection.

⬜ Check domain name availability

You can use online domain registrar websites to search the availability of domain names.

⬜ Check social media channel availability

You can search each channel or use an online name checker that will search multiple social media channels for you.

⬜Reserve your business name at the company registry in your country.

Once you’ve found a unique name that’s available, you should reserve your company name. But beware, reserving your business name does not give you the exclusive right to use that name and stop others from adopting it. You still need to take one more vital step and register your trademark/s.

⬜Register your trademark

Once you’ve decided on a brand name, you should apply to register it as a trademark - assuming it’s registrable.

⬜Design your brand assets

You can now set to work developing your brand identity. Get a logo designed, choose your brand colours, font/s, packaging, stationery, business cards, signage, website template and any other brand collateral that you need.

⬜Get trademark protection for all your brand assets

Once you have designed your logo and maybe even created a slogan, don’t forget to register trademarks for them too. You never know at what future point you might need legal proof that these assets belong to you. Trademarks are also assets that a buyer will value if your business is acquired.

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