Why You Need to Register Your Trademark

Key Takeaways

• A trademark is anything a customer perceives (usually sees or hears) and then thinks of your company - think your business name, course name, slogan, logo, podcast name, product/service name)
• A registered trademark is an asset your business owns. It increases the value of your business and can be sold with the business or separately, or licensed to other people to use
• The only way to truly own your brand and make sure no one else can use your trademark is to register your trademark

Resources Mentioned

• Episode 14: How to Register Your Trademark
• Episode 21: What is Intellectual Property
• Book a Trademark Consultation Call to get started on the trademark registration process
• Follow Amy on Instagram @artfulcontracts 

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Episode Transcript

Hello, welcome back. We took a little bit of a break just to do a little reset the last couple of weeks, and I'm very excited to come back with this episode. The sun is shining, it feels like spring, and for some reason, that always feels like kind of the beginning of the year to me. It's a new start.

So we are starting a new topic. We are going to be talking about trademarks for a little bit. And one of the main questions I get when I hop on calls with people to talk about trademarks is: why do I need to do this? Why is this important? How is it going to help me? How is it going to help my business? How can a trademark help me reach my goals? Should I really be doing this? Because it is an investment, so it's important to know why you need it and how it's going to help you before you can even make that decision.

We've talked about trademarks before, but I haven't gone through really all of the reasons why you should go through the trademark registration process and actually register your trademark. So let's talk about it. Let's dive in.

To start off, a super quick overview of what a trademark is and what I'm talking about. You can head back to episode 21 for an overview of what a trademark is and how it's different from a copyright. And you can head back to episode 14 if you want to learn more about the trademark registration process. That episode walks through the steps for registration.

But just a little quick summary: a trademark is, by definition, something that people can see and then identify your brand as the source of a good or service. Think the Nike Swoosh, the Golden Arches, the phrase "Just Do It," any business name. It's something that your customer perceives; they see it, they hear it, and then they think of a certain company. So in our context, the most common one is going to be your business name. If you have a name that's different from your individual name, and that's how people recognize your business, that's a trademark.

You can also trademark your individual name if it causes that same association with your business. If people recognize your name as the business, like Marie Forleo registered her name as a trademark because her entire company is called Marie Forleo. It can also be a product name or a service name, so the name of your signature package; it could be the name of your course or your coaching program, and it doesn't have to be a paid thing either. So it could be the name of your podcast or your YouTube channel. Those are all trademarks, and also any symbol or image that goes along with that, like your logo.

So if all of those things are, by definition, already trademarks, why do you need to register them? What makes that special? What makes that important? First, what I mean when I say registering them is filing an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to have your trademark officially registered with the Federal Register of Trademarks so that you're on a list; it's a national list. Anybody can look up registered trademarks. And again, head back to episode 14 if you want to walk through that process.

But what that does is registering your trademark is the only way to get national recognition across the US that you own that phrase in association with the things that you sell. And that means that you're the only one who can use that phrase or image or whatever you've registered when selling or providing whatever goods or services you sell or provide in your niche category. You're the only person who can use that trademark.

So that first benefit then is pretty obvious. You own your mark, you own your name, you own your business name, your course name, whatever it is you registered; you own it, and you're the only person who can use it to sell the kind of things that you sell. That improves your brand recognition, it improves the strength of your brand, it improves your positioning in the marketplace, your ability to be recognized by your customers, and your ability to create goodwill associated with your name because you're the only one who can use it. And all of those things are, of course, very good for business. You want to be recognizable; you want people to hear your name and associate it with you and not with somebody else, right?

But beyond that, it means that you no longer have to worry about someone else using your name and then making you stop using it. You can avoid having to rebrand because you found out somebody else got to it first. Because trademark registrations are a time game. The first person to file is generally going to be the one who's going to win if there's ever a conflict about who gets to use that name. So if you are that first person to file, if you get that registration, you can stop other people from using your name, and you don't have to worry about someone else stopping you from using your name. You don't have to worry about a rebrand. So from an emotional standpoint, that is great because it reduces some fear. And, you know, if you're really emotionally attached to your business name, if it was something that has personal meaning to you or you just love it, then that's a huge benefit.

But beyond that, it also creates a much more valuable asset for your business, knowing that you have the security in your brand. You can invest in your brand, you can invest in making sure you have brand recognition, and you don't have to worry about losing that in the future.

There is also a strategic advantage to having a trademark, having a registered trademark, because once you have that registration, your trademark is then an asset that your business owns. If you ever want to sell your business, it's an additional asset that has value that you can sell when you're selling your business and you're selling all of that security. Someone who's looking to buy a business, it's more valuable to them if they know that all of the goodwill that you've built up over time with your name, the recognition that you've built up with that name, if they know that it's something that they can own. If you don't have that registration, there isn't that same level of security, and they could be risking infringing on someone else's trademark.

Once you own that trademark, you also have the ability to license it out for use to other people and control how other people use your branding. So, for example, let's say that you teach a program and other people want to be able to teach your system. You develop this system, and you want other people to teach it. You can then have a certification, and you can license out the name of that program for other people to use. So think about StoryBrand by Donald Miller. He has a certification program where other people are allowed to call themselves StoryBrand coaches. That StoryBrand phrase, that's his trademark. And then he licenses it out to other people to use once they have his certification. And he gets to control who is allowed to call themselves a StoryBrand coach. And all of those coaches pay him for the benefit of being able to use his framework, but also just the name StoryBrand because it has authority and recognition associated with it.

All right, so knowing this, knowing that registration gives you ownership of your trademark across the US, it's the only way to get it. It gives you ownership, it gives you exclusive right to use it, it gives you the ability to allow or disallow other people from using your name. It gives you an asset that you can sell in the future. Knowing all of this, how does that help you decide whether to register a trademark?

So here's what I tell my clients to think about. Part of it is going to be that emotional piece. If you think about someone coming to you and saying, "Hey, I registered a trademark for this name; you can't use it anymore," how is that going to feel? Are you going to be devastated, or are you going to say, "Eh, I didn't like that name; I'm going to change it anyway; it's not a big deal?"

And then think about cost. How much have you invested in your branding around any particular name, your business name or your course name? How much time and effort and money is it going to cost to change it if someone were to come to you and say, "I registered this; you can't use it anymore?" Do you have to pay a designer to redo all of your logos? Do you have to pay your web designer to redo your website? Are you going to have to go through every single sales page and checkout page and all of your social media and change all of the graphics? How much effort is it going to take to make that change? Or would it be easier to just register and then avoid that?

But then beyond the emotional and financial cost of having to make a change, what is the value in being able to maintain your trademark, make sure you own it, and keep it? And part of that is going to have to do with your business goals. Do you have a goal of growing? Do you have a goal of being known and being recognized across the US or just in a small geographic area? And if you're growing on the internet, you're probably going to want to be known across the US and not just in a small area because the internet's global, right? Do you have a goal of having support coaches? Do you have a goal of growing your framework and having other people use it and teach it as well? Do you have a goal of streamlining your systems and pulling yourself out of the business and then maybe even selling it? Any one of these is a good reason to register your trademark.

So if any of these are checking boxes for you, if you want to grow your business or if you're emotionally attached to your name, then it's probably time to think about registering a trademark.

If this is bringing up any questions for you, or if you want to go deeper on any of these reasons, the first step in registering your trademark with me is a consultation call. And we can talk through on the consultation call what your goals for your business are, which trademarks are important to have registered to further those goals. And we can talk about that and prioritize and see if this is a good time for you to register a trademark.

And a quick reminder: the trademark process takes, on average, 13 months right now. So if you want a trademark in 2024, you have to start now. But as soon as you file that application, your spot gets saved in line. So the sooner you get your spot saved in line, the better, because that means no one can slip in ahead of you.

I would love to chat through all of this with you. You can head over to artfulcontracts.com/slash/trademarks to learn more about my trademark registration package and book your consultation call where we can go over your business goals, the entire trademark process, and go deeper into these benefits and whether it's a good idea for you. I would love to chat with you about all of it.

All right, that's it for today. I'll be back next week.