How to Legally Protect Your Brand Name

Legal protection and trademark registration concept illustration

🧠 Why protecting your name is strategic

You've found a strong name, bought the domain, and started talking about it. But... if that name isn't registered, you don't really own it.

Protecting a name means preventing it from being used or claimed by others, even long after you.

Secure your future marketing investments
Add value to your company for fundraising or sale
Avoid long (and costly) trademark infringement disputes

⚠️ Domain name ≠ trademark

Owning a domain like myproject.io doesn't give you any exclusive legal rights to the word "myproject".

A domain name is a technical tool: an address.

A trademark is an industrial property title: legal protection.

In other words: you can lose a name you're using if someone else registered it first, even in a related sector.

Hence the importance of checking legal availability and officially registering it.

🔎 How to verify legal availability

Before any registration, you must conduct what's called a trademark search. It helps you see if an identical (or too similar) trademark already exists in your sector or geographical area.

Tools to use:

USPTO for the United States
EUIPO for the European Union
WIPO for international

Warning: a "similar" or phonetically similar trademark may be enough to block your registration or expose you to legal action.

💡 Tip: also search your name on Google, LinkedIn, Crunchbase to spot recent unregistered but visible projects.

📝 How to register a trademark in 2025

Illustration of the trademark registration process

The process can be done alone or through a specialized counsel (lawyer, IP attorney). Here's the DIY version:

Registration in the US (USPTO)

Go to uspto.gov
Create an account
Choose your mark + Nice classes (products/services covered)
File → Pay → Follow the procedure
Wait for examination and potential opposition period

💰 Cost: $250-350 per class

⏳ Duration: valid for 10 years (renewable)

For Europe or international:

EUIPO single filing valid in the EU
WIPO Madrid system for global filings (more complex)

⏳ When to do it and how much it costs?

As soon as you start actively communicating about your name.

No need to wait for the final version of the product. If your website is online, if you have a company name, some beginning of notoriety... you're already exposed.

💸 Minimum budget: $250-350 in the US, about €850 for the EU
🔐 Cost of a name theft dispute: thousands of dollars, or even operating ban + forced name change

🎯 So it's a small cost for great peace of mind.

📚 Conclusion and useful resources

🛠 Ready to find your brand name?

Try Domain-Finder.ai