Search for Trademark Conflicts Before You Name Anything

A startup I know spent $40,000 on branding -- logo, website, packaging, marketing materials -- before discovering that their name was trademarked by another company in the same industry. They had to rebrand from scratch. The trademark search that would have prevented this takes about 5 minutes. What a trademark actually protects A trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identify the source of goods or services. It does not protect ideas, and it does not give you a universal monopoly on a word. Trademarks are specific to classes of goods/services. "Apple" is trademarked for computers and electronics (class 9). A completely different company can trademark "Apple" for, say, automotive parts (class 12) because consumers would not confuse the two. This is why Apple Records (The Beatles' label) and Apple Inc. coexisted for decades, though they eventually litigated over digital music sales. The US trademark system recognizes 45 classes. Your search needs to focus on the cl