THINKING OF TRADEMARKING YOUR BRAND?

When is the right time to trademark your brand? If you're asking yourself this question, it means you see potential or actual value in your brand. You wouldn't be attempting to protect something that is completely worthless, right? 

If you think your brand is (or can become) a valuable asset for your business, then I’ve got to tell you something. I hate to be the one to make you aware of this, but it’s just too important... You're already behind on your schedule! You should have already done it by now.

If not, it might not be too late to get the process started right away. I'm not saying you have to do it with me and my company, Trademark Factory®—although you'd be pretty crazy not to.

I'm saying that if you see potential in your brand, why spend a minute of your life or a dollar out of your pocket building something you don't own? The right time to file your trademark has nothing to do with how long you've been in business, how many customers you have, or how much money you're making.

We've helped clients protect brands for their 8-figure businesses, 7-figure businesses, 6-figure businesses, 5-figure businesses, and 0-figure businesses that were still nothing more than a dream. 

To paraphrase Henry Ford, whether you think your brand is worth protecting or it's not: either way, you are right. You can actually even file your trademark before you have your first product or service under your brand. All you need is a firm belief that the brand you're building will potentially be worth something. 

Not everyone sees what you see – they would have you wait until your idea has made you a million dollars first. If you know exactly what work you will do to create value for your brand, own it. 

“What if it flops? You would’ve wasted your money trademarking it!”, they say… But you know better. Never trying at all is worse than trying and failing, and someone making cash off your intellectual property before you saw its true worth is no fun.  

Keep watching this video for some mind-blowing statistics... Each of the triumphant stories I share here could be a video on their own merits, but when you hear them all at once, it clearly exemplifies the way that success really works.

Here's Netflix. The launch was in April of 1998. 4 years after, in 2002, they had a sleek and sophisticated website! Once again, they launched in April of 1998. But 5 months before that, in December of 1997, they filed their first trademark application. 

Nobody took them seriously for years! Certainly, not in 1997. But for whatever reason, they took themselves seriously enough to go ahead and trademark their brand. This worked out to be a pretty good investment for them, now that the brand is valued at over 20 billion dollars.

Let’s also consider Nike. Originally started as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, they came up with their current name, Nike, in May of 1971. By January of 1972, they had filed their trademark applications for both the Nike name and the Swoosh logo. 

Does anyone like bacon cheeseburgers? Here's Wendy's. Launched in November of 1969 – less than two months later, in January of 1970, they filed their first trademark application. 

Under Armour. Launched in September of 1996 by Kevin Plank. But only after he first filed his trademark in August of the same year.

Remember Old Spice commercials? They actually started in August of 1936. And in less than a month, they filed their first trademark application to protect the brand that is still massively valuable today.

And, of course, Amazon. Jeff Bezos quickly abandoned the original name of the company, Cadabra, and incorporated his business under the current name in July of 1995. 

He filed the first of thousands of trademarks that Amazon owns today in October of 1995. Just a few short months after the incorporation—and long before anyone could have ever predicted how huge Amazon would become in the next two decades.

Fabletics. Launched by Kate Hudson in September of 2013. She filed her first trademark 9 months earliest, in December of 2012. It's like her trademark application was a baby, right? Same 9 months between conception and birth!

P90X launched in February of 2003 while their trademark was filed shortly after, in March of the same year. It didn't take too long for them to realize the greatest asset they had was not the training itself, but the brand they were creating. So they took the right steps to trademark it—before anyone else did.

The great Beyonce released her debut album, Dangerously in Love, in June of 2003. Three years afterwards, she filed an application to trademark her name back in October of 2000. I guess, back in 2000, she knew she might make a career singing and maybe even sell some merch!

I can go on and on with these examples of entrepreneurs who filed their first trademarks LONG before they became successful with their businesses. To them, it wasn't a question of whether or not they could afford trademarking services. It was about the fact that they knew they couldn't afford to leave the brands they were about to build UNPROTECTED. They knew they couldn't afford NOT to trademark their brands.

So when should YOU trademark your brand?

If your business becomes a huge success, would you like to own it? Then trademark it. I know, that it could be a big IF. But that's what entrepreneurship is all about. Fortune favors the bold! If you know you plan to work for it until it becomes a profitable trademark, then get it established. 

This is a little like the lottery, and trademarking your brand is your ticket. It's just a part of the game. By the time you build a successful business, someone will have trademarked your brand–and this is not ideal. It could be you, or it could be somebody else. It could even be totally different from your brand, but the trademark is gone, and with it goes the opportunity for brand consistency. 

If you are already spending time, money, and energy building your brand, don't leave your lucky ticket for someone else to pick up and use against you. Trademark your brand today!

Oh, and one last thing. Here at Trademark Factory, we can't promise that you're going to build a successful business. We can't promise that your brand will be worth billions of dollars. What we can guarantee is that we can get your brand trademarked from start to finish for one fixed fee—or you get a full refund. This way, you get to trademark your brand without wasting time and money on trademarks that don't go through.

If you believe you're building what will become a successful brand, click the link in the description below and book your free call with one of our strategy advisors. When it comes to trademarks, it's never too early.. but often too late!

Book your call today.