Naming & Trademarking: Creating Your Brand's First Impression

Session One: Wednesday, August 8th from 8:00 - 9:30 pm

Session Two: Wednesday, August 15th from 8:00 - 9:30 pm

Nina Beckhardt, Founder, The Naming Group

Laurie Marshall, Owner, Trademarks the Spot

Naming is widely thought to be a purely creative process where people drink coffee and brainstorm. Anyone who has tried this methodology to develop a brand name has probably found it to be rather ineffective. During this class you'll be learning how to name your product/company - the right way. Hint: it doesn't start with naming.

Equally as important as establishing a name, is the protecting its trademark. Many small businesses overlook these important steps in creating and securing their brand.  This class is intended to demystify the name development and trademark process for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  

First class (August 8th): Discovery, Planning and Creation

During this first class, you'll learn about the most effective way to approach the naming process. We'll discuss how to build the strategic base and "decisioining criteria" for the name - including what your name should & shouldn't do and can & can't do as well as tips on how to stimulate creativity for the name generation. The homework for this class will be for students to take what they learned during the class to establish their strategy and generate name candidates.

Second class (August 15th): Evaluation and Decisioning

During this class, we'll talk about the two-part culling process you'll use to narrow down the name candidates you've developed. We'll also talk about the evaluative measures you must use to vet your name candidates: contextual, linguistic and most importantly trademark - to make sure they're appropriate and usable. 

A trademark can become one of your company’s most important and valuable assets.  If your company, however, has not taken the steps to insure that its name and any other trademarks are available for use, it may be forced to stop using a mark or worse yet, change its name. This could be devastating to business, especially after much time and equity has been put into building a brand.  Additionally, once it is determined that these names and/or marks are available, protecting the brand is of equal importance.