So you’re thinking about changing your company name, brand, or both. We usually like to allow at least a few months to identify the new name and initiate protection. To help you plan, here’s a high-level overview of significant steps in the process. Happy rebranding!
- Develop a timeline for creating the new brand and announcing it publicly.
- If you engage a marketing agency to assist with rebranding, make sure the written agreement reflects that you own the intellectual property the agency creates.
- Create a list of potential new names and logos. Rank them in order of preference.
- You can expedite this process by searching the Internet and eliminating names and designs used by companies in related fields.
- To achieve broad protection, consider adopting made-up words as opposed to dictionary words, or words from literature.
- Explore whether the new names have undesirable connotations in other languages.
- Conduct trademark and company name searches to check the availability of the preferred candidates in important jurisdictions. It’s often more efficient to check on a group of names, rather than vetting them one-by-one.
- Identify the company that will own the trademarks. Consider whether your ownership choice presents tax consequences.
- Acquire domain names and social media handles corresponding to top candidate names.
- Make sure your logo fits within a mobile app icon.
- Assess whether the changes to your existing brand are sufficiently minor that you might be able to amend your existing trademark registrations, rather than filing new applications.
- If needed, file new trademark applications in important jurisdictions.
- Add new brands to your trademark watching service.
- Consider filing new copyright applications for the logo, depending on how elaborate the design elements are.
- Review existing contracts to determine whether formal notice provisions are triggered by a company change of name.
- File documentation to change the company name with governmental authorities, and record that change in the Trademark Offices in relevant jurisdictions.
- Develop branding guidelines that require use of the brands as adjectives, not as nouns, and prohibit use of logos as punctuation, for example.
- Revise signage, marketing materials, invoices, directory listings, voice mail greetings, email addresses, and server and file names.
- When trademark registrations issue, consider filing Trademark Clearinghouse registrations to help protect your brands against domain name squatters.