Naming and Protecting your ECommerce Business
Creating your Business Name
One of the most exciting stages of starting a business is giving it a name. Maybe you already have one or maybe you are still thinking about it. Your business name may come to you in a flash of inspiration or during a brainstorming session with friends and family. Either way - as soon you have the right name for your business, everything begins to feel real! As with our own names, business names say something about us; they give us our identity and make us easy to find and recognise.
Ideally you want your business name to last as long as your business does so check out the steps below and nail a winning name right from the start. I spent many hours and days churning over my ideas both before and after choosing our own business name. I have used it ever since but, who knows, if I had followed the steps below I might have come up with something quite different.
8 Steps to a Great Business Name
Availability: Make sure the name is not already registered with Companies House or similar entities. Remember that many companies do not need to be registered officially so make sure you also do a general google search and see if your intended name is in use. If it is then it does not necessarily mean that you can’t use the same name but think about whether you are likely to be impacted by other companies with the same name.
Uniqueness: Avoid confusing people with a names that is too similar to existing businesses. As above, conduct a thorough online search and trademark check to ensure your name stands out.
Simplicity: Opt for a name that's easy to spell, pronounce, and remember. This aids brand recognition and avoids confusion.
Relevance: If possible (and it may not be), include words which relate to the goods or services you are offering.
Competitive Landscape: Research your competitors' names to understand industry trends and identify opportunities to differentiate yourself.
Scalability: Choose a name that reflects your long-term vision. Avoid including specific services or locations if you plan to expand in the future.
Domain Name: Check for domain name availability alongside company name registration. Consider registering variations to prevent others from claiming them.
Feedback: Seek input from friends, family, and industry professionals. Their feedback can reveal potential issues with the name you might have missed.
Creating a Trademark
In addition to your businesses name it is also common to have a logo. You can do this by either creating an image based logo or you can turn the lettering of your business name into something more fancy. This combination often constitutes your trademark which you can use as a letterhead, on invoices and correspondence, apply it to promotional material and upload it onto all of the sales platforms that you use. This ensures that everyone knows who you are. If you choose, you can use your trademark without making it official but, in the world of Ecommerce, you are strongly advised to register a trademark. Here’s 10 reasons why!
10 Reasons to Register a Trademark
If you choose, you can use your trademark without making it official but, in the world of Ecommerce, you are strongly advised to register a trademark. Here’s 10 reasons why!
People love brands even if they haven’t previously heard of you. When selling online you will reach many customers who don’t know you so having a registered trade mark gives you better options for promoting your brand to them. It’s is a great way to tell customers that you are serious about your business and your products.
Other parties can be prevented from registering a similar trademark which is likely to be confused with your business. Without a trademark you may be forced to choose a new business name and logo if someone else registers a mark which is too similar to your own name and logo.
Someone else may register your trademark if you don’t! This will put your business plans at risk.
Protect your products from copycats. When selling online it is easier for third parties to copy your ideas, images and text, or even to claim that they are selling your goods. Having a trademark will not prevent this entirely but it does deter copying and gives you much better protection if you need to challenge anything.
Enhanced protection to sellers who have a registered trademark. Marketplace platforms are more likely to remove a third party listing which has breached your rights as a trademark holder.
Intrinsic added value to a business. A registered trademark gives your products and/ or your business an identifiable entity which could be of interest to investors and anyone who may wish to buy your business in the future.
Some marketplaces only permit registered brands. A reduced choice of marketplaces may impact on your growth plans. Even if you stick to marketplaces which do welcome all sellers, you will find that they often offer special showcasing features for registered brand sellers. Without your own trademark, you may have reduced visibility and competitiveness.
A trademark can also be registered in other countries. Handy if you want to sell internationally. This includes an EU wide trademark which can be obtained separately from your UK one.
Trademarks are not expensive. Currently £170 for a single class registration in the UK.
Trademarks last for 10 years and can be easily renewed.
What did I do?
Well yet again, I left it pretty late before registering a trade mark. In the beginning, our products were fairly niche and hand made so there was no real trouble from competitors and no real incentives from marketplaces. It was easy for us to operate using our unregistered trademark without any unwanted consequences - but things eventually changed. I realised how important a trade mark was once I started to expand my Amazon presence. Our Amazon listings started to attract hijackers who would attach themselves to my product pages, claiming to be a seller of my product. They would offer a lower price than me and then send out an inferior product to customers. The customers would then leave a bad review on the product page even though they received the item from a different seller. This affected my product reviews and ultimately my sales. This happened in both my UK and EU Amazon stores. I had a mad panic when I realised that being an unregistered trademark holder gave me little protection against these occurrences and so I went straight to the trademarks section of the UK Government website and started the ball rolling.
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark
The steps I took to register for my Trademark involved the following.
Using the ‘Search UK Trade Mark Classes’ service to decide which general category and specific type of goods or services (known as ‘classes’ and ‘terms’) I wanted to use. From this I decided on 5 classes which covered the range of products that I was already selling or planning to sell.
Checking whether anyone else had registered a similar trade mark. This revealed several companies called Second Nature and so I decided to add Online to my name just to reduce the change of opposition.
Deciding what I wanted to trademark I had to decide between registering the words, graphics or both and I decided to trademark both. In theory it would probably have been fine to register either the words or the image but I knew that registering the combined trademark would also reduce the likelihood of opposition. (Remember I was in a panic at the time!)
Deciding whether to pay an extra £100 fee to have my application checked against similar trade marks before making my submission. I decided not to do this as I considered that I had reduced the chance of opposition by modifying my company name and creating a fairly unique combination of words and graphics.
Paying my application fee. I cannot recall exactly what the cost was in 2018 but at the time of writing this content, it costs £170 for a single class trademark application and a further £50 for additional classes.
Allowing time for the examination and objection period to be concluded. The UK IPO reviews your trademark application and sends an examination report within weeks, highlighting any issues that could block registration. If anything has been identified, you have two months to address these. They also check for similar trademarks and may contact relevant parties if found. If your application is okay, it is published for two months, and, if no objections, your registration will be official.
Unlike some HMRC processes, I found Trademark registration to be fairly straightforward although I had to wait a whopping 8 months to get my trademark, largely because there was a long queue of applicants trying to get their combined UK/ EU applications processed before Brexit. You will likely wait between 3 and 6 months but fortunately there is some level of protection afforded to you even while your trademark is in a pending status.
You can choose to complete the registration process yourself or you can engage the services of a trade mark specialist/ solicitor. I have registered two trademarks in my time and I have used both methods. When registering the Second Nature Online trademark, I wanted to be sure that everything was correct especially with time being of the essence. I had 5 classes to apply for and I also wanted to add the EU to my application (an option prior to Brexit). Therefore I engaged the services of an IPO trade mark solicitor based in Glasgow. Of course this added to my fees but it was worth it in my case.
When I registered the trademark for EcoHere, I did it myself because I understood the process much better. I would say that if you have a simple business plan with one or few classes and little chance of running into objections then registering yourself is worth considering . Otherwise, using a specialist service provider can be a stress free option in which case you can shop around for advice and quotes.
As a last point I will warn you to look out for scam letters which may attempt to draw payment from you. Trademark applications include your name and address and everything appears on a public register. It is easy for scammers to send official looking letter to you requesting additional payment and, if you are new to the world of trademarks, it can be easy to fall for. I received plenty such letters (both from the UK and the EU) and all of them went straight into the bin.
