Choosing the name for your product — legal & marketing perspectives

Facebook has recently changed the name to “Meta” proceeded with the infinity sign. Arguably, the company was not too creative when naming their offerings (think “Messenger”). At the same time, their brand names sound like bold ambitious statements. From now on, every time you say “meta verse” or “meta data”, you give a hint to the company name. Exactly as when you use “google” as a verb. The difference though is that “google” went from seemingly meaningless word to a household name.

Having worked with IP strategy and trademarks, I found a number of implications for entrepreneurs who are about to launch their business and find the name. Please note, some of the tips below may hamper the creative process;)

Choosing the name is about balancing certain dimensions below:

Trademark protection gives you an exclusive right to use certain symbol in business. To paraphrase, only the TM owner is entitled to certain names or logos for specific products or services. Should a competitor or someone else try to make use of the name without your permission, you are entitled to block this. Unlike people, that come and go, technologies that become obsolete, trademark is a highly vital technically perpetual asset that increases in value with time.

Legal perspective

Depending on jurisdiction, there could be differences in rules regarding TMs. However, most jurisdictions apply the same basic principle: in order to become a TM, a symbol (for example a word, phrase or logo) must not be similar with the existing TM. Another requirement is that the symbol is distinctive. This means that the symbol clearly identify you as a source of the goods or services. You can’t trademark the names merely describing the products (like you can’t get TM protection for “Furniture Shop” for the store where you sell couches).

Marketing perspective

The logic behind TM protection is to make sure that customers are not being confused as to where the product is coming from. The more unique the name for this industry, the harder it gets to explain to customers what you do and to motivate to check your product out. On the other hand, more generic names can instantly build rapport with customers and communicate the values you stand for.

Interaction of legal and marketing perspectives

In legal terms, a trademark is strong when it is unique and easy to register. From marketing perspective, a trademark is strong when it coveys your brand values to the customers. If you are working with innovative technology in start-up environment you have additional challenge to explain to the customers what you do. In order to do so you need to use the familiar words and symbols that people can relate instantly and remember. This makes you legal position weaker.

Just to give you an example:

Generic name

Unique name

You develop an MMORPG. You may call it “ Monster Shooting Simulator 1.0.0″ the name is easy to remember and relate to. On the other hand, you can’t register the name as a trademark for video games, because it’s descriptive. This means that your competitors may promote a game entitled “ 2.0 Monster Shooting Simulator” without any difficulty. They may even take on goodwill and hype created by your game.
One way for you to protect the name is to design a unique logo and register it as a trademark.

If you call your MMORPG, say “ Ain Elohim”, instead. This name is much more suitable for registration. So you can stop competitors from utilising your name, or even making references to “ Ain Elohim “ in their games. On the other hand, promoting the game will require additional marketing resources explaining you brand, your values, contents of the game or target audience.

Domain names perspective

Domain name is basically your address on Internet. Unlike trademarks, where certain criteria are set for registration, you can register any domain name you wish. There is only one condition for domain registration — the domain name needs to be available. Anyone can register a domain.

The only piece of advise in relation to domains is that you check in advance and make sure you own the domain before you apply to trademark registration. It is not uncommon that multiple domains with different extensions pop up once you TM registration application gets published. So check that you have registered the right domain in all the extensions relevant for your business, both geography and business wise.

Originally published at https://innovationcurious.me.