How to Name Your Startup & Product Part 2: Disagree with Your Lawyer

Trademarks are one of the biggest barriers to securing a great name and many founders mistakenly just listen to their trademark legal counsel blindly or try to do it on Legal Zoom. If you have a great name, there is most likely some other company or product out there in the world that has used it. Pressing your trademark counsel and looking at all the options is key.

In Part 1, I discussed the naming and rebranding of my first company with some key takeaways that you can read here

Naming SHINE

Through a series of surveys and research, I had come up with the name SHINE for my new bathroom startup. I did some basic research and found that there were of course several companies with Shine as part of their name but the companies were in different categories. I asked my attorney to file the trademark and I was surprised when they advised against it due to existing trademarks.

It wasn’t my first time trying to get a good name trademarked so I did a few things.

How to Keep Your Brand in a Space with Existing Trademarks

There are a few concerns that are frequently brought up around Trademarks and here is a way to deal with them without relenting on your brand.