When you first start your own business, the first step is usually to speak to professionals such as accountants, marketing experts etc. However, they may not tell you about the risk of trademarks and how one wrong move can set you back thousands.
When naming your business, it’s important you consider trademarks. Trademarks are known as intellectual property and the IP (intellectual property) rights are owned by registering them with IP Australia. Simply put, you would need to apply for IP rights which are then listed for public review for several months before being accepted. After being displayed for a period of time, the trademark will either be accepted or rejected depending on the outcome and if there are any objections.
Why you should trademark your company
Your business might become one of your biggest assets, so why wouldn’t you want to protect the unique name and business identity that you invested in with your time, money and reputation? Trademarking your business name allows you IP rights so that no one can steal your business name. Every major brand has trademarked their name and own the IP rights in a certain class. Classes depend on what industry you trade in. I.e., Construction, marketing etc. I now own two trademarks and I feel assured that no one else will be able to trade as my name in my class.
Speaking from experience
We founded our company in 2017, and after trading for nearly 18 months we were threatened with a cease & desist letter as I had unknowingly infringed on a trademark owned by a major camera company. The letter pointed to a violation of the camera company’s Intellectual Property (IP) and informed me that if had continued using the name I would be taken to federal court.
After pulling my hair out and feeling that I was on the brink of losing my company, we sought legal advice and rebranded after spending thousands on legal fees, branding and marketing. When we were in the process of rebranding and deciding on a new name for the business, we started with 50 names, but many were already taken. After four months of working with our current clients and signing a stat dec, it came down to just two names. In the end, we went with Orizonta Pty Ltd.
Where to start
I realised after we had rebranded that my accountant did not know about trademarks and why should they? They count numbers and keep your business in check. Accountants are vital to your business and should not be downplayed, but this doesn’t mean that they know about trademarks and why they are important.
It cost me thousands of dollars to rebrand. I believe that this mistake could have been avoided very easily if I had received the right advice in the first place. The BrandRead.i.y., platform, for example, instantly searches the availability of business names across the web, socials and Australian IP and ABN databases. If services like this had existed a few years ago, it would have given me peace of mind that our name was free to use cross-platform and saved me a great deal of time, energy, money and heartache.
