Artwork for podcast Beyond the Kitchen Table (previously the Website Coach)
Ep 105: Trademarking your business name
Episode 105 • 2nd October 2023 • Beyond the Kitchen Table (previously the Website Coach) • Marie Brown
00:00:00 00:14:42

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Speaker:

Hello, and welcome to episode number 105.

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The website, coach podcast.

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This week.

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I'm going to talk to you about

something I haven't spoken about before.

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And to be honest, probably never will.

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Again.

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Something completely different.

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And that is trademarking

your business name.

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Now before you think

I've changed what I do.

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I haven't, I'm not a lawyer.

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I'm still a website designer.

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So please do not take

this as legal advice.

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And in fact, if you have any queries,

then do go and talk to a lawyer.

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But the reason I'm talking to you about

this subject this week is because I

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have just trademark my business name.

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Beyond the kitchen table.

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And I've had lots of questions

from people about it.

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So I thought it would be helpful

to talk about my experience.

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Which let's just say was a

little bit of a roller coaster.

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You got to listen further on

to find out what happened.

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My application went in back in

June and it's only just come

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through on the 30th of September.

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It's taken three and a half months to get.

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I'm going to share why I decided to get my

business name, trademarked the benefits.

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If you like.

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I'm also going to share why I

didn't do it early in my business.

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Oh, I regret that decision.

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The process that I went through and

the issues that I faced, as I say,

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there was some drama along the way.

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So, first of all, why should you

trademark, your business name?

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Well, the first reason

is hugely important.

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In the D legally safeguards

your business name.

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Of course it does.

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But your business name is

not just a catchy phrase.

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It has value.

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It's what you're known as you've

probably got a website in that name.

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Social media.

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Maybe signage business cards

or other branded merchandise.

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You have built brand value.

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And was that a registered trademark?

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Somebody else could come

along and take that away.

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Someone else could use exactly

the same business name.

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And what's worse is

they could register it.

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And if they trademarked it

before you trademarked yours.

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And they could stop you using

your business name in the future.

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Just think about that for a moment.

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Somebody else could stop you

using your business name.

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If you don't have it trademarked.

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And even if they didn't trade

market, Having somebody else with the

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same or a similar name could cause

confusion amongst your customers.

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And indeed they could harm

your brand's reputation by

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trademarking your business name.

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You are shielding your business

from the worst case scenario.

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Either having to rebrand or

alternatively having your brand

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name trashed by somebody else.

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And I think that's pretty powerful reason.

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And yes, I wish I had done it earlier.

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The second reason is it

allows you to bring action.

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If others attempt to copy what you do.

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In theory.

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I know that you don't need to have

your business name, trademark to stop

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someone passing off as your business.

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But I do know that having gone

through trademarking, it gives

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precisely this protection.

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People can and probably will

attempt to copy your business.

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Having your business named trademark.

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Means they can't get too

close to your business name.

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You can use the threat of legal action.

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Many years ago, I was helping

someone set up a business with

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a name that started with IBM.

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It happened to be the initials of

the person running the new business.

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As soon as we've registered the

business at company's house, we hadn't

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even got as far as trademarking.

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We got a strongly worded letter

from IBM, the computer giant.

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Accusing us of attempting to pass off.

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What we were doing has been part of IBM.

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Now, what we were doing

was completely different.

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But after receiving the

letter, we decided to rebrand.

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Hello.

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I did persuade IBM to pay for the rebrand.

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As I told them, they didn't have a

legal standard, which is true because

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they hadn't trademarked IBM in the

class of business that we were in.

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Anyway.

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Trademarking your business name

gives you this kind of legal cloud.

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The third reason is it sends

a clear message that you are

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serious about your business.

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I've often said that one of the

benefits of having a website

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is it gives you credibility.

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It shows that you mean business.

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I think trademarking your

business name is the next step.

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By making the investment in

trademarking, the business name, it

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shows that you are really serious

about making this business work.

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You're not going to disappear quickly.

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The fourth reason is to do with attracting

investors and going into partnerships.

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I think if you ever want to bring

outside investment into your business

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or indeed go into partnership

with somebody else with your name.

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Having trademark, your business is.

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Crucially important.

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People are more likely to

invest in or collaborate with a

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brand that's legally protected.

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It protects against the

risk of having to rebrand.

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Again, it shows that you're serious

about your business and its longevity.

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And the fifth reason is it

gives you peace of mind.

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And I don't think this one

should be underestimated.

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I've been in business almost six

years as beyond the kitchen table.

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And I've had the name

for longer than that.

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And while it wasn't trademarked, I

was aware that somebody else could

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come along and take that brand name.

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And I could lose it.

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And so just putting in the application

and getting the trademark through

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has given me peace of mind.

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It might sound really silly, but I'm going

to talk about what happened during the

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three and a half months between putting

in my application and getting it approved.

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Because until I got it back just

last week, I was worried that

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I might lose the business name.

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Somebody else could get their first.

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Now that I have the

business name trademark.

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Nobody else can take that away from me.

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At least in the UK.

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Trademark in the UK doesn't

cover internationally.

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It only covers you in the UK.

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So why didn't I do it earlier?

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Well, when I first started out like

many businesses, I had no idea where

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my business was going to go, or even

whether it was going to be viable,

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whether it was still going to be

around in a couple of years time,

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because a lot of businesses aren't.

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And registering a trademark seemed like

an unnecessary expense at that stage.

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I also see, I need to involve a lawyer.

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There are plenty of lawyers who

are specialists in this area.

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And therefore, I thought

you had to use the lawyer.

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Um, you don't, by the way.

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I also assumed it was

complicated and expensive.

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And then at some point I reached the point

where I thought I really should do this.

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Because I was worried that somebody

else could trademark the name.

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Now I had the domain name.

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both@dotcodotukandthe.com anyway.

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I don't have all the social media handles.

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That's another story.

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But I do run a limited company.

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And the name registered at company's

house is beyond the kitchen table limited.

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So I knew there were barriers to

somebody else getting in there.

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But there was still that nagging

feeling that I might have

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an issue with somebody else.

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But I didn't make it a priority because.

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I assumed I'd need somebody to do it for

me, it would be complicated and expensive.

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And I have lots of other things

today and things to invest in.

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And I didn't get around

to it until this year.

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So why this year.

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Truthfully.

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Because when I was with a group of other

entrepreneurs or business owners at a

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business retreat in Marrakesh in March.

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It came up.

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And several people told

me it was really easy.

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They were actually going to

help me walk me through it.

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Um, other that didn't happen.

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We got dry sidetracked on something else.

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So how easy is it?

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The answer is it's incredibly easy.

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I followed a 12 minute YouTube video.

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I'm not kidding.

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I'm going to tell you

about that in a moment.

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It does take awhile though.

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As I mentioned, it took me three and

a half months between putting in the

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application and getting it through.

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I think that's about the

quickest that can be done.

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It just went through the normal process.

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When you register a trademark,

you have to choose the class.

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And there are, I don't know

how many classes, probably a

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hundred or something like that.

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And the classes relate

to different industries.

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So I chose one particular class,

which covers website design.

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It doesn't just cover a website design.

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It covers all sorts of

other design as well.

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So if I wanted to use my

business name in other fields of

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design, I can certainly do so.

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But it doesn't stop somebody who's

doing something completely different.

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Like for example, a restaurant.

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Which would be in a different class.

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It wouldn't stop a

restaurant using the name.

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But what it means is people

who do something similar to me,

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cannot use my business name.

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So the first thing that you have

to do is you have to work out

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which class you want to register.

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You're trademarking.

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And you can choose more than one class.

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You just pay a bit more, depending upon

the number of classes that you choose.

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I chose one class and

it cost me 170 pounds.

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I can't remember the cost for each

additional class, but it's less than

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170 pounds for additional classes.

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And how did I do.

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Well, as I say it didn't

take me very long at all.

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Probably half an hour or so.

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I followed a YouTube tutorial by

somebody called Luca Davenport.

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I can't patch for him.

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But the YouTube video

was really, really clear.

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It's 12 minutes long and I put

the link to it in the show notes.

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And I say it didn't take me much longer

than that actually filed the application.

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It was really quick and really easy.

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I did do one step slightly

differently to the way he instructs.

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He suggests that when you make the

application, you do so in a way,

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can't remember what it's called, but

you get the IPO to check it first.

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And if they advise you that it

all looks fine, then you go ahead.

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And if they advise you that somebody

else has registered in that class

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with a similar name, It means

you can stop the application and

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you don't end up paying as much.

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But that was more expensive overall.

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I was confident nobody else

had the same name in my class.

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I did check.

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So I just went for it.

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It was very straightforward to do.

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And I did not involve a lawyer.

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All good, safer.

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However, I then hit an issue.

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I got a letter back pretty

quickly from the IPO, which is

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who you make the application team.

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And it said that there was another

business registered in the same

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class as mine with a similar name.

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And they were minded not to approve

my application for that reason.

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Yes.

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I was devastated when that came through.

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I'm not going to lie.

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And the bizarre thing is I was

aware of this other business.

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Because they're local to me.

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But they do something different

and then name is different.

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Slightly different.

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There beyond the table, whereas

I am beyond the kitchen table.

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They teach people how to style,

dining tables, et cetera.

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And because interior design is the

same trademark class as website design.

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Their trademark was in the same

class as I was applying for.

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They set up in business after me.

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I didn't realize they

trademarked the name.

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And yes, I was very annoyed with myself

when I realized that the fact that they

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set up after me made no difference.

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My fanning about delaying trademarking.

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My business name nearly

cost me my business name.

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No, I don't give up that easily.

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I asked her advice in the Facebook group.

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I'm in with other small business owners

and realized my situation was not unique.

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There was several other business

owners who had had something similar.

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And there were different

things that I could do.

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I decided to write back to

the IPO and explain how our

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businesses were very different.

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And I didn't see why any

confusion with a car.

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And the IPO responded as well as

publicizing application and the

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officials, journalists, normal.

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They would have to write

a notify beyond the table.

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Q a couple of nervous months

to see if anybody would object.

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Fortunately and completely coincidentally,

I hit time for my application.

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So the notice period was

over the summer holidays.

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And I think that's a really good

time to do it because I don't think

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as many people are focused on it.

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If you're up against a large

corporate with a big legal team,

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then of course, they're going to

be receiving these kinds of notices

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and they're going to be on the ball.

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But I think for a lot of other

businesses, Frankly over the summer,

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people have got so much going on.

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The juggling so many things, and they're

probably not keeping such a close

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eye on these kinds of notifications.

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But I still worried.

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I'm worried.

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I might lose the right to use my

business name and I'm very attached

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to beyond the kitchen table.

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I can tell you.

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Orientate.

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I might have to employ an

expensive lawyer to argue my case.

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As it happened, there was a happy ending.

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There were no objections.

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And the trademark came through last week.

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I was so relieved.

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I can tell you.

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But yes, I kicked myself because

I wished I had done it sooner.

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I would've saved myself a lot

of stress over the summer.

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That's it for this week.

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I hope you have a great week.

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And I will see you all again next week.

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