Protecting Your Business Brand: 3 Steps you NEED to take
Your business brand is your identity, reputation and most valuable asset. So protecting it should be a top priority! If you don't protect your name, logo and other creative work, someone else could easily steal your brand and reputation.
The good news is that it's not hard to protect your brand and you can do so in 3 easy steps - but it does take some time and effort on your part. And if you're serious about protecting everything you've built up over the years or are building right now, then it's worth taking those steps towards protecting everything that's yours - including your business name, logo and anything else you've created.
If you're selling a product or service, trade mark protection is a good idea. Trade Marks protect brand identity, image and reputation. They also protect the goodwill that's been built up over time by your business. This can be especially important if your business is a startup or one that's just getting started.
Step 1: Check you name hasn’t already been taken
To get started with trademarking your name and logo, first make sure you've got a legally defensible brand name which means that it isn’t the same or too similar to another company's trademarked product.
Start by checking on Companies House for a registered business that might have your name, just pop in the name and away you go.
Once that is clear, check on the Trade Marks register if the name hasn’t already been trademarked. You also want to look out for names and logos that are very similar to the one you want to protect. If it's’ on the Trade Mark register, it means that legally speaking no one else can use that name and even similar names have been challenged by trade mark owners.
Step 2: Social Media Check
Check that the business name is available on all social media platforms especially LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Even if you aren’t going to actively use those platforms, snap them up before someone else does otherwise you risk your customers and followers mistaking them for you on any platform you don’t use.
Step 3: Take the name!
You may or may not want to register your business as a limited liability company, if you do then incorporate as soon as you can to reserve the business name (and start trading). If you choose to work as a sole trader that's cool, but either way it’s recommended to apply to register for a trade mark which is your protection to ensure no one else can use it.
There is a fee to pay and it can take around 4 months for the process to complete, but the pay off is that your business name is owned by you and anyone using it needs your permission to do so.
Be aware though, this doesn’t mean that no one is ever permitted to talk about your business, it only goes as far as to stop anyone from using the name in a business manner.
Summary
Check your name hasn’t been taken on Companies House or the Trade Mark Register
Snap up the handle on all social media platforms
Apply to have the trade mark registered
Now that you have all the information on how to protect your business brand, it’s time to take action! Remember: The sooner you start protecting your brand, the better. Set up a Google Alert for your name or company name and track any mentions of it online. You can even use this as an opportunity to build relationships with potential customers by responding positively when someone tweets about their experience with you or mentions you in a blog post (even if they didn’t mean anything negative).
