Before you take the next big step in building your business by launching your brand, you might want to stop and assess the quality of your company’s trademarks.
Your trademarks will be how your target audience comes to understand your business; they need to communicate your business’s purpose, its values, and its products effortlessly and in a manner that is memorable for positive reasons.
What’s more, to avoid unnecessary expense, you need to be certain that your trademarks will remain effective for as long as you hope for your company to survive.
To that end, you might want to pay attention to some evolving trends in the trademark space. Here are some issues you should consider as you develop your business’s trademarks and before you engage in trademark registration for your brand.
Increase in USPTO Processing Times
As a government agency, the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) has never been particularly speedy. Still, before 2020, businesses could expect to hear a verdict on their trademark registration in about three months, which is a somewhat reasonable amount of time for the office to research the trademark, request challenges, and update their files.
However, after the pandemic, the USPTO has slowed to a snail’s pace of about eight months between the submittal of a trademark application and the release of the office’s judgment, making it much, much riskier for companies to launch new brands.
Though the USPTO continues to aim for a target of 4.5 months for the first action pendency period, you should plan for roughly double that in your business plan.
Scrutiny Regarding ESG Claims
A burning-hot business trend, in general, is Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), an approach to doing business that reframes business goals, centering sustainability and social justice (among other things) instead of merely shareholder profits.
Unfortunately, many businesses are building ESG-focused brands without putting any real effort into shifting their business practices to effect positive change.
Already, consumers are becoming wary of ESG-related trademarks, knowing that not all claims about corporate values or environmental sustainability are accurate. Likely, levels of ESG scrutiny with continue to rise.
To avoid invoking consumer ire — or falling on the wrong side of government regulations — you need to be certain that any trademarks that leverage ESG accurately reflect your business values and operations.
Complaints About Savings Claims
Though the Federal Reserve’s fast action to raise interest rates has curbed inflation somewhat, in many parts of the country, the economy remains a significant concern.
The cost of living is higher than it has been in 40 years, and consumers everywhere have cut back their spending, restricting themselves to barely more than the necessities.
To combat anxiety over inflation — and perhaps to capitalize on it — some companies are marketing their products as money-savers.
However, as with ESG, consumers are catching wise to these manipulative tactics and seeking to eliminate unscrupulous trademarks through complaints to the Better Business Bureau and through litigation in district and federal courts.
As you build your brand, you need to be honest about costs with your consumers, or you could face significant backlash during this time of economic turmoil.
Mobility of Trade Secrets
Employee mobility is at an all-time high, with workers hopping from company to company to increase their income and achieve their ambitions.
However, many employees are unintentionally taking trade secrets with them when they leave, as so many companies allow workers to use their own devices to complete work.
On one hand, this could mean that your new business could gain access to trade secrets from your competitors, allowing you insights that improve your competitive edge within your market; o the other hand, it could mean that when your workers leave, they will divulge details of your business operations to your competitors.
Registering trademarks and filing for patents could help protect your business from this mobility of secrets, but you might also consider creating a business environment that incentivizes employees to stay.
Trademark and Copyright Concerns With AI
Contrary to popular belief, generative artificial intelligence tools do not produce work as humans do; rather, they copy directly from existing materials that are used to train them.
Thus, many AIs are producing images, videos, and text that involve trademark and copyright infringement. If your business model involves extensive use of AI, you need to be cognizant of the potential for infringement that could lead to lawsuits.
Additionally, you should be more aggressive about searching for AI content that infringes on your own intellectual property.
Stopping to consider trademark trends before you build and launch a new brand could save your business incredible amounts of time and money. By absorbing the above trademark trends, you can ensure a stronger, healthier business in the future.