Questions

Do I need a trademark for my web startup?

AAnonymous ·May 18, 2014 ·9 answers

We’re building a SaaS website and are slowly getting people to use it, however we do not yet make money off of it. We secured an .io domain because the .com etc. are being squatted. When we chose our name in Fall of last year there were no registered trademarks in the US, but two unrelated ones in our home market (EU). In the meantime someone in the states registered a trademark using the same name for a mobile app / social network in the same general field, but we’re not competition. We registered our domain before them and our website was online before them, we just weren’t sure how things would pan out and therefore didn’t want to invest a (to us) considerable amount of money for a trademark we may never need.

As some promising clients are on the horizon the question of trademark was raised once again. So we were considering protecting our name in EU (not sure if it’s possible to register the name again in the states with the existing trademark). Should we do it, or not?

9 answers from the community

AAnonymous· May 18, 2014

Don't waste your time. By the time we signed off on our trademark for Uk and Us our startup shut down. Not saying you will. But you end up wasting money and time in the early days where the cash has more value elsewhere. Sure, later may be more expensive as you have serious traction and popped your head above the ground onto the main stage. Ours took about 1.5 years from the starting point until paperwork signed off and spent a good few grand getting there.

Spend the money on CA rather than lawyers. Of the millions of things to worry about on a daily basis put this right at the bottom of the to do list next to an office pool table and consultants. :-)

Good luck moving forward ;-)

AAnonymous· May 19, 2014

Thanks! Statistically speaking you're definitely right. :) As mentioned my other answer, our main worry was basically that someone else may prevent us from using the name in the future. Would kind of suck if after building enough traction with our current name we suddenly have to change it. I definitely wouldn't mind saving the costs for a trademark though.

AAnonymous· May 18, 2014

Just use common trademark law instead of registering it federally. For now, put (TM) after your stuff if there's a product, logo or what have you. That should give you sufficient protection until you get money to spend on it.

AAnonymous· May 18, 2014

You should read about the founder from Secret who created tweetvid or whatever a few years back. They had the .io domain, before they got funded someone ended up buying the .com from a squater for 50k, then copied basically everything from their product including their style sheets. Everyone who meant to goto tweetvid.io ended up at the .com version and they stole all the celebrities too. They ended up pivoting afaik. The interview I saw he said if he had to over again he would have paid for the .com a lot sooner as it's crucial for web based companies, but mentioned that mobiles its fine to just get a "getproduct.com" name instead of shelling out early.

AAnonymous· May 19, 2014

That's a horrible story, but I couldn't afford the .com domain if I wanted to. My main worry was that maybe an other company (like the one from the states) may be able to force us to use a different name, if we don't somehow protect it here. I read that the right to use a name can also be acquired simply by using it (first), even without registering a trademark explicitly.

AAnonymous· May 19, 2014

Pick a new name with a .com domain. The founder of imgur picked up imgur.com for $7 back in 2009. A five letter domain in 2009 that will eventually be a billion dollar company. I'm fairly certain you risk a lot of problems with SEO by having a .io domain versus a .com (meaning .com will always rank higher). Really, it sounds like it is early for you guys, you should really consider renaming your company until you can get a .com if you're doing a web based business.

AAnonymous· May 19, 2014

Right now when searching for our name we're the second result, after a related Wikipedia article. The mobile app got the domain "[name]app.com" and is on the third page. The squatted .com domain is unused as of now, even though of course I don't know if the company behind the app will at some point buy it.

You are right it is still early, and if we have to change the name we should do it now. But the name is just perfect for us and I'd like to keep using it. SEO-wise I'm considering getting a complementary .com domain (like get[name] or something).

Of course all of this would be futile if the other company decides to register a trademark in Europe as well and forces us to change the name, assuming that this is even possible given the two existing registered (yet unusued) logos.

AAnonymous· May 19, 2014

I say go for a dot com regardless of your search ranking. People don't search for your company they type the dotcom in. If it turns up blank they might give up as your service just isn't that valuable to them.

The only time a non dot com works is if the name is part of it. Ie about.me

AAnonymous· May 20, 2014

Registering a TM can be had for only about $1,300. Well worth it, and you can scrape that together. If someone already has the site though, it will likely get denied. You can find five digit .coms for auction cheaply from time to time, I saw drinkr or something similar for life 50 bucks a few weeks back. Get one you can secure if it's important to you

Do I need a trademark for my web startup?

9 answers from the community

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