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Protect the name before it's worth fighting over.

You are building something from nothing. The name on it is the first thing people will remember and the first thing someone else might try to claim. This page covers why a trademark matters, why doing it early costs less, and seven things you can do this week for free.

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Free guide · carefully crafted by an attorney

7 Things Every Business Owner Should Do to Protect Their Brand

01 Read the IP licensing clauses in your contracts

02 Put ownership language in your client agreements

03 Research the name before you commit

04 Make sure you actually own your logo

+ 3 more inside

Why it matters

Using a name is not the same as owning it.

Most new businesses pick a name, buy the domain, open the social handles, and assume that settles it. It doesn't. A domain and a handle are rentals. A federal trademark registration is what turns the name you use into the name you own.

Your name becomes an asset.

A registration is property. It can be licensed, sold with the business, and valued by a bank, a buyer, or a partner. A name you merely use is much harder to put a value on.

You can stop copycats nationwide.

Federal registration gives you nationwide rights, a public record that the name is taken, and the right to use the ® symbol. That is leverage when someone starts selling under a name that looks like yours.

It unlocks the platforms you sell on.

Programs like Amazon Brand Registry generally require a registered or pending trademark. For e-commerce founders, that means stronger tools to report copycat listings and protect your product pages.

It protects you from a forced rebrand.

If someone else has earlier rights, you can be told to stop using your name after you have paid for packaging, signage, ads, and a following. Checking and filing is how you find that out first.

It shows you are serious.

Investors, retailers, and collaborators notice when the brand is actually owned. It is one less question in diligence and one more reason to take the business seriously.

Why early

The cheapest time to protect a name is before it's famous.

Early on, changing course costs you a logo and a domain. Two years in, it can cost you inventory, a website, your reviews, and the audience that knows you by that name. The legal work is the same either way. What changes is how much you have riding on the answer.

Protect it now

You can file before you launch. An intent-to-use application reserves your place in line while you get ready.

Your filing date matters. Once the mark registers, your rights date back to the day you filed, across the whole country.

If the search turns up a problem, a pivot costs a few design files, not a warehouse of packaging.

You build every piece of marketing on a name you already know you can keep.

Wait until it takes off

Someone else may file first, including a competitor who noticed you were getting traction.

A conflict found late means renaming with customers watching and a following attached to the old name.

Registration takes many months, so the protection you need today depends on the day you filed.

Disputes over who used a name first are slower, costlier, and harder to prove from memory.

Free download

7 things every business owner should do to protect their brand.

Plain English, carefully crafted by an attorney. The short version of what I tell every founder: the contract language that decides who actually owns your brand, the reason most logos are not protectable, and the paperwork worth doing before you need it.

Read the IP licensing clauses in the contracts you sign

Put ownership language in your own client agreements

Research the name before you commit, and keep a backup ready

Make sure you actually own your logo

Put every account in the business’s name

Document your use from day one

Send me the guide.

When you're ready

One attorney, one clear process.

You don't need to know trademark law to protect your brand. You need someone who does it every day and tells you the truth about your name before you spend money on it. Here is what that looks like at Citrus Legal.

Step 01

Search

A clearance search for your name, so you know who else is out there before you commit to it.

Want only this step? Take me to Seed.

Step 02

Clearance opinion

A plain-English read on how strong your name is and how risky it is to use and register, before you commit.

Step 03

Filing

Your application prepared and filed with the USPTO, with the owner, goods and services, and specimens done right.

Step 04

Prosecution

Monitoring your application and responding to the examining attorney, through the first Office Action.

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New founder questions

The ones founders ask most.

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