How to protect your brand name

If you don’t own your name, you don’t own your brand, and fixing that later is expensive, distracting, and avoidable. So you need to think about what trademarks you might need, and also what domains you’re going to need – then get them sorted so you don’t lose momentum.

Why legal strategy can’t be an afterthought

• Trademarks get messy fast. What’s clear in the UK might be taken in Europe, the US, or Asia. And no – a Companies House registration is definitely not the same as a trademark!
• Domain squatters are real. If you don’t check digital availability, someone else will. Then they’ll sell it back to you for megabucks.
• Name changes waste time and money. Rebranding because you didn’t check the legal side? Avoidable and costly. It happens more than you think.
• Overlapping industries. Your name might be clear in tech, but blocked in beauty, health, or finance – trademark classes matter!

And here’s where most businesses get caught out. It’s not just about checking if a name is taken, it’s about how it’s protected. Trademark law works in categories called classes that define what you’re actually covered for. And if you don’t understand that, you’re wide open.

What you need to know about trademark classes

Trademarks are divided into 45 classes — 34 covering goods (like clothing, food, tech) and 11 covering services (like financial, legal, advertising). You don’t own the word globally – you own the right to use it for specific things. For example, Apple Inc. owns “Apple” for tech, but you could theoretically open an “Apple Café”, because food and drink are a different class. Without protection in the right classes, someone else can operate under your name legally.

Therefore, you need to think about competitors. If your name is too close to a competitor’s in the same class, it could be down to the courts.

This is why we always recommend working with an IP expert if we’re doing a name for you. This is legal territory, and mistakes cost real money. We never suggest names we don’t think are viable, and we do our own desktop research to be as sure as we can, but we always recommend you contact your IP solicitor to check before you roll it out!

Don’t forget about global markets

If you’re planning on launching your brand globally, then you need to remember each country has its own trademark laws. Therefore, you need to think about the following.

• Run international checks, not just UK ones. WIPO global databases, US, China, Middle East — wherever you’re going.
• Factor in local quirks. What’s available in one market might be blocked by obscure prior rights elsewhere.
• Buy the domains and buy them now. And think beyond .com. Country-specific domains matter. Some countries operate ‘first to file’ – if you’re not first, you lose.

And that’s another thing – owning a domain doesn’t mean you own a trademark. You can have the .com name of your dreams and you could still lose it. Another thing to consider is having multiple domains for your brand – from obvious variations to typos and international extensions, you need to protect your online presence from copycats.

The bottom line

The cost of getting this wrong? Tens – sometimes hundreds – of thousands in legal fees, rebrands, lost domains, and wasted time. And worse? Lost trust. Protect your name properly from day one, because fixing it later hurts more than your budget – it hurts your reputation.

Now you know how to safeguard your name, if you still need some help coming up with one, then we’d love to chat. Give us a call or email us to find out more.