The Most Important Decision in Business Design

THE single most important business design decision people make is their name. 

I’ve come to this conclusion after years of advising businesses on intellectual property, and also because when a business is sold or goes into administration, its name is often its most valuable asset. 

As a law firm owner, I regularly receive enquiries from businesses with legal problems. Their issues are invariably caused by their choice of name. 

For example, 

- the name conflicts with a third party’s trademark, or  

- it is too descriptive to function as a trademark, or  

- it is the type of name that's not possible to own, or  

- it's a weak name that is difficult to enforce against competitors with similar names.  

Choosing the wrong type of name leads to multi-faceted issues that I can’t begin to describe in a single email. Invariably a legally inadequate name impacts turnover and even, viability as a going concern...  

Whether business owners choose the name themselves or get help from a designer or agency, they risk ending up with a poor name if trademark considerations are not reflected in the final decision.

The right approach is for marketing and legal considerations to carry equal weight when deciding the name. It's not enough to just involve lawyers to check legal availability of a name. 

The brand protection perspective must also have a chance to influence the choice of name. For example: 

- Is the name easy or difficult to secure in other countries?  

- Is the name strong enough to stop cybersquatters?   

- How would the business fare if it needed to enforce its rights against competitors using similar names?

Taking account of brand protection doesn't require country specific advice. Any good trademark lawyer with international experience can advise because thanks to international treaties that countries have signed up to, IP and trademark principles are universal.

The details of the law are different in each country but the general principles are similar.

We can also check whether a name is available in many different countries using online trademark registers.

If you're located in a country whose registers are not searchable online it's very easy for us to engage agents in your home market to search the local registers (for an additional fee).  

So, unless your business is only going to have customers locally in your home market, I can work with you on your branding and establish whether your chosen name is available internationally. 

That's why my business, Azrights international Ltd, is introducing the Brand Tuned-Up branding service aimed a an international audience. I’ll be launching it this Friday.

There's a gap in the market for such a business design service that's multidisciplinary in approach and includes expertise that's key when making THE most important business design decision!