I was talking to a startup that was upset about Apple's app that allows users to find unknown AirTags. The problem? Two years had passed since the company, TrackerDetect, began building up its brand recognition. When Apple launches a product, it puts it on its website, and hundreds of news outlets cover the launch, chances of being found on the internet plummet.
The only other option was to change the company's name.
Mira Marcus, who runs PR for the company, said that Apple stole their name. That is not how intellectual property or how theft works. The company didn't put basic protections in place, such as applying for a trademark.
A trademark application can seem like an unimportant part of the startup journey, as you are busy building your company, hiring your staff, raising money, working on product and getting press. It can feel like a lot of work and money to spend a couple of grand on a lawyer to register a trademark. If it turns out that you didn't need your trademark in the first place, it is. Having a trademark and not needing it is infinitely more convenient than not having it.
In the U.S., it can take a long time and cost a lot of money to register and babysit a trademark, so it's best to work with a lawyer and not have a lot of resistance from existing trademark holders. If it is a very obscure word, and someone decides to contest the application, that can be a little less. The Red camera company sent a battalion of lawyers after me after I tried to register Redshift as a trademark for my company Triggertrap. The sum of money spent on lawyers didn't result in us getting a trademark. I registered my name as a trademark in the U.K. for the dumbest possible reason. I did it myself without a lawyer, and the cost was around $200. Your mileage may be different.
One of the big trademark registration services has a range of prices. By the time you file and defend a trademark, you're looking at around $1,000. Trademarkias
A friend discovered that a product that was launched by Facebook was a violation of the company's trademarks.
I can't tell you how much Facebook paid me, but I was told that when the company launched. They bought it off us because it would have cost so much to change it. We were given enough money to delay our Series A fundraising by six months. We hadn't launched yet, so it turned out to be trivial to change our company's name.
This wasn't the case for TrackerDetect.
Marcus told me that they haven't applied for a trademark.
It's easy to say, but that slip down the priorities ladder ended up causing a lot of trouble. The company had to change its name.
Although TrackerDetect already has customers and claims to have million of dollars in revenue, this week it announced a name change, made necessary by Apple's product launch. Marcus notes that the new name is Reveal Security, which will hopefully not need to fight a giant like Apple for search engine results.
I hope the company finds prosperity and success, and I note that I couldn't find any trademarks for Reveal Security when I searched the United States Trademark and Patent Office. The company decided not to apply for a trademark after I asked about it. It appears that some people never learn their lessons, and if another company chooses to file a trademark or launch a product called Reveal Security, there's not a lick the company would be able to do about it.
Marcus said in an email that a court wouldn't be able to help. Even if we had a trademark, it wouldn't be realistic in a digital world, we would have already dealt with the consequences.
Dozens of lawyers on a contingency basis would happily take on Apple if there was a chance of a large settlement check at the end of the case. If you have a valid trademark, Apple would take care of the problem with a couple of firmly-worded letters.
A name change when your company is already up and running can be very complicated and expensive, and can distract from the core mission of your company. It can be avoided by getting your trademark applications in as early as possible, and definitely before you do a public launch of the company.
I put marks in the headline of the piece, but wish to point out that it was a dumb joke, and that I was not successful in getting a trademark for Excruciating.
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