Your Brand Protection Checklist: A Practical Guide to Trademarking for High-Growth Startups

The requirements for building a company have fundamentally changed. With tools like Claude Code for development and Stripe for backend financial infrastructure, a team of three can now create what used to take a team of thirty. 

But certain elements of the company-building process can’t be accelerated, like registering a trademark. Trademarks are essential for protecting your brand, but registering one with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can take as long as 9.7 months. So while you can now build a brand in a weekend, you can wait nearly a year to find out if you’re allowed to keep it. 

We recently spoke with Relani Belous, founder of Belous Law Corporation and creator of a separate consumer facing venture known as The Trademark Channel, to learn more about the trademark registration process and where founders usually go wrong. 

Here’s a breakdown of some tips on working to effectively register your mark so that you can scale your brand without worrying about losing it. 

Clear Your Brand Name Before You Start Investing In It

Finding product-market fit is the first thing on most early-stage founders’ minds. They buy ads and print packaging in an attempt to drive the right kind of customers to their product. But if you don’t register your brand before investing in it, you could find your brand name is unavailable as soon as you start getting traction. 

Doing a simple USPTO database search to see if your brand name is registered isn’t enough. Unregistered senior users can hold common rights law over names and prevent new organizations from using them. Effective trademark clearance must cover state registrations, common law use, domains, and social handles and general business uses.

Pick a Name That Can Actually Be Protected

Founders often name their company with marketing and discoverability in mind. But what can be good for marketing can be bad for trademark registration. 

Generic names, such as Invoice, are always rejected by default under US trademark law. Adding “.com” or “AI” to the end of a generic brand name is also likely to be rejected or disclaimed unless other factors are present.

Descriptive brand names, such as FastInvoice (for a fast invoice service), often get refused under Section 2(e)(1), unless you can show five years of substantially exclusive and continuous use. Best Buy and Bank of America, for example, obtained trademark protection for wording that might otherwise have faced descriptiveness concerns because, through extensive use, the names had acquired distinctiveness—consumers had come to recognize them as identifying a particular commercial source.

Suggestive brand names are the sweet spot for trademark registration and also are sometimes referred to as fanciful marks. They use language to describe the service provided without naming the service itself. Zendesk, for example, uses "zen" plus "desk" to suggest calm customer support without stating “helpdesk software.”

Founders can go a step further with arbitrary names, like Apple for computers. As long as an arbitrary brand name doesn’t encounter a conflicting mark, it’s likely to get approved.

How Much Does a Trademark Cost?

A trademark doesn’t protect your brand name in generality. It protects your name for the specific categories of products and services you apply for. These categories are referred to as “classes.”

Each trademark class is assigned a number: Classes 1–34 generally cover goods, while Classes 35–45 cover services. But the class number does not itself define the full scope of trademark rights. For example, a SaaS offering is typically registered in Class 42 for the particular software services identified in the application, and that registration may prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark for the same or related goods or services. It would not automatically prevent an unrelated company from using the same or a similar name on clothing in Class 25, although trademark rights can sometimes extend across classes where consumers are likely to believe the goods or services come from the same source.

The number of classes you apply for drives application cost, as application fees and surcharges are charged per class. The base fee is $350 per class, but only if you decide to use the USPTO's pre-written goods descriptions for each class. If you customize your description, surcharges apply. Drafting your own description instead of picking a pre-written one is a $200 surcharge, with an additional $200 fee per extra 1,000 characters. Leave any required fields incomplete and you’ll be charged more fees.

Where AI Falls Short in Trademark Applications

Generative AI makes it possible to spin up product screenshots for your website in minutes. But while UI mockups might be enough to drive product signups, they’re not enough for the US trademarks office. 

Every trademark application requires a specimen, defined as real evidence of the trademark in use. This can include product packaging, labels, or a live page where someone can purchase your product or service. 

Mockups, renders, staging URLs, and digitally altered images are regularly refused. So, use real samples of your goods or services.

Registration Is Only The Start

Many founders treat their trademark certificate as the finish line. But fail to maintain your trademark over time and you could lose it.  

First, in the US you’re required to submit a Section 8 declaration between your fifth and sixth anniversary of registration. The Section 8 declaration is a sworn statement that you’re still using the mark, including updated specimens for each class. The USPTO audits Section 8 declarations at random. 

On the tenth anniversary of registration you’re required to file a combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal, which costs $650 per class. These declarations must be repeated every decade for as long as you want to keep the trademark. 

Trademark owners are responsible for monitoring and enforcing their own rights—the USPTO does not police the marketplace on their behalf. That can include watching new trademark applications, online marketplaces, domain names, social media handles, and other uses that may create a likelihood of confusion or otherwise impair the strength of the mark. Depending on the circumstances, enforcement may begin with an informal demand or cease-and-desist letter and, for conflicting applications, may involve a Letter of Protest, opposition, or cancellation.

Protect Your Brand as You Scale

When you dreamt of starting a company, you probably didn’t envision spending hours navigating trademark application documents or searching for similar names. But fail to protect and register your trademark properly, and the brand you have spent years building may be left vulnerable to competing claims, costly disputes, or even a forced rebrand.

Every’s mission is to help founders simplify administrative and back-office tasks so that they can focus on building companies that last. That’s why we’re pleased to highlight Relani and Belous Law Corporation, a bespoke and service-oriented boutique firm providing IP guidance across the AI, media, and technology sectors.

If you’re considering expertise guidance for your trademark and intellectual property journey, you can learn more about the work of Belous Law here. 

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DISCLAIMER:

This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information may not apply to every situation and should not be relied upon as a substitute for advice from qualified legal counsel. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this article, contacting or communicating with any referenced firm, or receiving general information. An attorney-client relationship is formed only after the firm has agreed to the engagement and the parties have entered into an appropriate engagement agreement.