There are many things that serious trademark owners do throughout the lifecycle of a trademark to mitigate risk, protect the valuable goodwill in their underlying brand, and preserve their valuable investment in this important intellectual property asset. Here is a fairly extensive, but certainly not exhaustive, and often forgotten, list of those things:
1. Clear new marks before using them even if "only" for brand extensions;
2. Understand the pros and cons of different name styles;
3. Adopt suggestive marks over merely descriptive ones...
Please see full publication below for more information.