Best way / can I copyright / protect a company name.
Discussion
You are probably better off registering/ protecting the trademark.
Once you register the company name at companies house it’s yours and someone else can’t legally trade with it.
You’ll want to secure relevant web domain names at the same time.
The risk then isn’t someone using your exact name but something similar. I think trademark will help with that element.
Once you register the company name at companies house it’s yours and someone else can’t legally trade with it.
You’ll want to secure relevant web domain names at the same time.
The risk then isn’t someone using your exact name but something similar. I think trademark will help with that element.
As alternative view…
Trademarks are only any use if you have things in place to scan for unauthorised use and are prepared to play hardball with those who infringe them. This costs. If your business is international, or you could see international competition, then TM protection and enforcement really costs.
The time and money to obtain and even if/when you do you’ve not fully protected the underlying business model (and in the uk we don’t have the same broad approach to patents as in, for example, the US) is more likely better spent elsewhere.
Unless you have very deep pockets, it could well be that you get most of the benefits through a process of domain registration (exact matches, and near variations), but don’t go mad with every tld, only the useful ones and instead focus on what is probably the more important part of the business… in no particular order, product management, internal process, platform (if tech), and delivery.
Accept that there will be copycats, recognise you have a head start on thinking, and build so that you retain and capitalise on this.
Oh, and if you’re doing something genuinely new, be especially careful about how/where you get your product input from! Don’t assume your first customers know what they want, are representative, are worth keeping…
All of the above comes from experience. One venture TMs were a distraction I should have avoided. Didn’t make the same mistake next time round and the focus went elsewhere for the first few years.
Trademarks are only any use if you have things in place to scan for unauthorised use and are prepared to play hardball with those who infringe them. This costs. If your business is international, or you could see international competition, then TM protection and enforcement really costs.
The time and money to obtain and even if/when you do you’ve not fully protected the underlying business model (and in the uk we don’t have the same broad approach to patents as in, for example, the US) is more likely better spent elsewhere.
Unless you have very deep pockets, it could well be that you get most of the benefits through a process of domain registration (exact matches, and near variations), but don’t go mad with every tld, only the useful ones and instead focus on what is probably the more important part of the business… in no particular order, product management, internal process, platform (if tech), and delivery.
Accept that there will be copycats, recognise you have a head start on thinking, and build so that you retain and capitalise on this.
Oh, and if you’re doing something genuinely new, be especially careful about how/where you get your product input from! Don’t assume your first customers know what they want, are representative, are worth keeping…
All of the above comes from experience. One venture TMs were a distraction I should have avoided. Didn’t make the same mistake next time round and the focus went elsewhere for the first few years.
I have to agree. My company is tiny in the grand scale of things but we came up with a few new ideas over the years, some of which other companies copied - including even using our photographs of our product off the website. Necky.
There is one company who even use a very, very similar name to ours. We get their orders though, although I am sure they get some of ours.
I used to write snot-o-grams and most of the time it would do the trick. A few years ago I just thought, f*ck it and stopped bothering.
In about 2014-15 ish we re-branded. Every time we re-brand we repaint our vehicles and do new logos etc. Its usually less than 12 months before our competitors have tried to copy our new colours etc. I always found it a bit ridiculous that they would go to such lengths.
So, this time, before we rolled out the real paint scheme (blue and white) I had one of our vehicles painted BRIGHT green. And I mean dayglow. Company name in massive white text down the side. I got the driver to tell all the customers and suppliers this is our new colour scheme and we are going to get the whole fleet done like this to get our trucks noticed a bit more as everyone else was in similar colours to us and we wanted to stand out yada. Our competitors would be in the supplier yards and the first question was about the green paint.
You can guess what happened.....
A couple of months later our trucks are now on the road with their new blue and white paint job... everyone else cruising in their bright green trucks
There is one company who even use a very, very similar name to ours. We get their orders though, although I am sure they get some of ours.
I used to write snot-o-grams and most of the time it would do the trick. A few years ago I just thought, f*ck it and stopped bothering.
In about 2014-15 ish we re-branded. Every time we re-brand we repaint our vehicles and do new logos etc. Its usually less than 12 months before our competitors have tried to copy our new colours etc. I always found it a bit ridiculous that they would go to such lengths.
So, this time, before we rolled out the real paint scheme (blue and white) I had one of our vehicles painted BRIGHT green. And I mean dayglow. Company name in massive white text down the side. I got the driver to tell all the customers and suppliers this is our new colour scheme and we are going to get the whole fleet done like this to get our trucks noticed a bit more as everyone else was in similar colours to us and we wanted to stand out yada. Our competitors would be in the supplier yards and the first question was about the green paint.
You can guess what happened.....
A couple of months later our trucks are now on the road with their new blue and white paint job... everyone else cruising in their bright green trucks
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