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If you are a small business owner, you know how much energy and work is invested in what you have created until today. You know how much of your time you have invested in creating your business and the audience that it has. It is by no means an easy job. And as a small owner who has endless responsibilities, the last thing on your mind is your brand’s identity. But beware, your brand’s identity and the audience you have worked so hard to gain is crucial for long-lasting and successful business. It is something that people will see first when they come in contact with your company. It is something that gives the “personality” of your business, and it should reflect your business’es values and goals. In internet era of information abundance, stealing someone’s brand identity is much more likely to happen than you think, that is why keeping your company’s identity must be your priority and something that has to be taken rather seriously.
You may be wondering what constitutes a brand identity, and to put it shortly – it can be anything that makes your company unique in any way, whether it is a name, a logo, a way the name is written, design, audio sound, any type of artwork, etc. The main point is that it has to make you unique and make you stand out in the crowd. Before jumping to ways in which you can protect your brand design and identity, you have to make a list of all the elements that your brand design is consisted of. Once you did that, you can think further about the ways to protect them.
Domains
Domains are definitely the cheapest way to protect your business. While the internet is a lovely place that helps your business flourish, it can also be the place where your business confronts many opportunists. When buying a domain, it is suggested to buy all three most used versions of your domain – .com, .net, and .org. The last thing you want is for someone else to buy other versions of the same domain, and to use your success to create a false business. Also, if you find that your business name/website name is easily misspelled, make sure to buy a misspelled version of your domain as well, and redirect it to your original website, as many companies do. For example, owners of finance blog SquawkFox made a very smart move – after realizing how easy it is to misspell SquawkFox, they bought misspelled domain (squakfox.com) and redirected it to their original website. if your company’s name is quite difficult to spell, maybe try using some catchier and easier words for your domain, so that people can easily recognize your business.
Trademarks
This is one of those terms that everyone kind of knows, but no one actually knows what it is. To make it simple, United States Patent & Trademark Office defined trademark as “a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” So, basically, as stated above, anything that makes you unique and different from others. The ® symbol shows that a certain mark is registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office, and legal benefits should not be overlooked since it legally forbids others from using/stealing the same mark. Above all that, it makes your company look more professional in the eyes of the public, makes it more recognizable, and also gives to your company’s value. Before deciding to register your company’s trademark, check to see if anyone else has taken it already. You can easily do it by searching through the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS).
Copywriting And Patents
Similar to a trademark, patenting and copywriting also has to do with legal protection of your intellectual property. If your business is responsible for creating any kind of art piece (music, design, logo), you may want to consider copywriting it. Same goes for any kind of unique innovation of significant value, which would need to be patented. That will stop others from using your intellectual property as their own, and it would be legally protected. Just keep in mind that patents do not last forever, and they have an expiration date, meaning that is it only going to be protected a certain number of years, and then it will be available to the public.
Seek Legal Assistance
Processes of trademarking, copywriting and patenting, all need a very good understanding of the law in order to do it properly, and all those agreements and contracts can get very confusing if you are not familiar with the subject. Since you probably don’t want to indulge yourself in endless paperwork, you may want to consider hiring professional help. It can be an IP portfolio management company or a lawyer that specialized in intellectual property. Whoever you choose, do not be hesitant to seek for help and invest in your brand design protection.
Be On Track With The Online Reputation Of Your Business
This is a very easy and overlooked way of being on track with your company’s brand identity. It is something you can always do from your computer, without investing anything except a little bit of your time. There are various free tools that can help you analyze what people have been writing about your brand on the internet and it is an amazing way to stay in trend with current marketing strategies. Do not be terrified of the bad comments if you encounter them – remember that they are a great way of telling you in which areas you should improve your business (assuming that allegations make sense, of course).
All these ways are just the basics of protecting your brand design and identity and be sure to engage in it fully because the last thing you want is to regret it later. As they say – it is always better to prevent than to cure.
