When you're building a business, you're focused on getting your product to market, growing your team, and serving customers. Legal paperwork, especially things like trademarks, often gets pushed aside. But I’ve also learned that
overlooking brand protection is one of the costliest mistakes a business can make. And usually, you only realise it when it’s too late. We had built something strong a recognisable name, loyal customers, momentum in the market.
What followed was a rebrand, legal back and forth, confusion among our users, and weeks of lost time. That experience made one thing very clear to me: trademark protection isn’t just a legal task. It’s a leadership responsibility.
Changing the Mindset
For too long, trademarks were treated like background work something to check off after a product launched or a campaign went live. But that approach doesn’t hold up anymore.Now, we bring our legal team in earlier not to slow things down, but to make sure we’re not creating risk where it could’ve been avoided.
We’re asking better questions:
∙Is the name clear?
∙Have we protected it across the markets we operate in?
∙What happens if someone else tries to use it?
Brand protection isn’t about being cautious it’s about being prepared. And in a competitive world, preparation is everything.
Prevention Over Damage Control
Some business risks you can’t avoid. But many, like trademark disputes, are preventable with the right planning.We’re not waiting for issues to show up in the form of legal notices. We’re taking a proactive approach working with trademark professionals, registering assets early, and building systems to support long-term protection. This shift has saved us time, energy, and distraction. And more importantly, it’s allowed us to focus on what really matters: strengthening our brand and earning our customers’ trust.
A Culture of Ownership
When teams across the company from marketing to product understand the value of protecting our brand, they make more thoughtful choices. They check for name availability. They think twice before launching. They treat the brand as something we all own and defend. That’s what this is really about.Not just playing defense when there’s a threat, but building a culture where brand protection is part of how we work every day.
The Way Forward
We’ll continue to face legal and market risks. That’s part of growth. But if we can avoid even a fraction of the issues that come from poor trademark planning, we’re already in a stronger place.
So, instead of asking, “What if someone copies our name?”
We now ask, “Have we done everything we can to protect it?”
Because that’s not just good legal practice it’s smart business.