Naming and creating brand assets for your company can be fun brainstorming activities. However, many founders learn about marketing as they develop their business. They may not realize that doing some pre-work before naming their company can make it more easily found and more trustworthy to customers. Using free search tools early in the process can help you ensure that your name and brand assets are suitable for your needs.
Step 1: Check for Trademarks
Start your search by checking for existing federal and state trademarks. Links to the USPTO (federal) and Wyoming trademark search pages are below. By ensuring your company name is not already trademarked by another business, you can avoid potential lawsuits and verify that you can create an online presence for your company.
- USPTO (Federal) Trademark Search: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search
- Wyoming Trademark Search: https://trademarks.wyo.gov/
Before you go public with your name, you may want to protect it with a trademark. Trademarks are relatively inexpensive and simple to obtain. If you need legal advice, be sure to contact an attorney. (The Wyoming SBDC Network is an educational resource and cannot provide legal advice.) The USPTO has webpages listing instructions and fees for registering a trademark.
- USPTO Trademark Application: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/apply
- USPTO Trademark Fees: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/trademark-fee-information
Step 2: Search Your Name Online
After checking for trademarks, use search engines like Google to look up your potential company name.
- Website Domains: Check if any websites are already using your name in their domain. You will also want to check for availability across multiple website extensions (e.g., .com, .org, .net).
- Social Media: Search all social media platforms to see if your name is taken as a social media handle. It’s a good idea to claim these handles early so customers can find you easily in the future. Even if you don’t plan to use a specific platform, you may want to grab the handle to prevent customer confusion.
- Email Address: Ensure that you can get a professional email address domain for your company.
- Similar Names: While doing these searches, check for similar names that could potentially confuse customers.
Step 3: Check for Trustworthiness
Besides checking for availability, you will also want to see if your name has any potential trust issues.
- Past Use: Has your name ever been used by a closed business with unfavorable practices?
- Double Meanings: Could the name have a double meaning that might impact your trustworthiness?
- Acronyms and Initials: Acronyms can sometimes be a source of problems, as they can have many different meanings in different contexts. A poorly chosen name could be a source of humor at best, or at worst, it could damage your trustworthiness to the point that customers won’t buy from you.
When naming your company, ask what your potential customers, friends, and family think of the name.
Step 4: Review Your Brand Assets
Similarly, you will want to check if your potential logo or other brand assets could cause confusion.
- Logo Design: When designing a logo, make sure the design is simple enough to be legible when reduced in size or reproduced in black and white.
- International Presence: If you may expand internationally, check if the logo would be simple enough to be associated with your brand and would be acceptable to different cultures.
Need More Help?
If you would like to speak with an advisor about your potential company name and logo, you can reach out to your local Wyoming SBDC Regional Director. Regional Directors provide no-cost advising on all aspects of your business. In addition to the local Regional Directors, the statewide Market Research Center, APEX, WSSI, and FAST specialists can help you with market research, grants, and government contracting.
You can get started by finding your local Regional Director at the link below.
https://wyomingsbdc.org/contact/
The Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network is a partnership between the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council, and the U.S. Small Business Administration, offering business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent, or exit their business.
All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
