The Essential Entrepreneur, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 13Trademarks and patents

The valuation of a company can be substantially enhanced if the intellectual property (IP) of the company is protected. These are the things that create your sustainable advantage in the market — such as business names, logos, technical designs, processes, recipes and anything that can create a barrier for other companies to easily compete with you. This is usually done through trademarks and patents.

Trademarks (TM): protecting your brand

Deciding on the perfect brand, ensuring it's free to use and then protecting it are three of the most important steps you will take when starting a business. A good brand is the cut-through tool that's going to get the attention of your market and position your business within that market. Through your marketing and sales programs, you will be constantly investing in your brand and building value, which, when successful, others will quickly try to leverage from, so make sure you choose wisely and then protect it. When you look for investors on your business journey, protection of your brand is one of the first things they will ask you about.

You need to ensure the brand you want is available for the business name (entity), the internet domain (www), Instagram, Facebook and any other media platforms you may want to use either now or in the future. Checking the availability of your brand in your country will not be enough if you have international ambitions, so searches of trademark registers in other countries, ...