Do you need a trademark when launching your new company?
That’s the question posed in a recent article in the Fundbox blog, and Goodwin Procter partner Joel Lehrer was the expert providing key insights on an important issue impacting many startup founders. As a partner in Goodwin’s Technology Companies Group and a member of the firm’s FinTech Practice, Joel offers particularized knowledge in intellectual property matters including trademarks, and technology clients regularly turn to him for counsel on IP and other legal issues central to startup ventures.
According to Joel, entrepreneurs starting companies should carefully consider whether they need a trademark for their startups. If the startup company’s name has intrinsic value and will be the primary way consumers recognize the corporate brand, Joel emphasizes, then founders should strongly consider a trademark.
“You want to make sure you have trademark rights in the brand to prohibit others from using it. For a trademark to be allowed it should be either fanciful, arbitrary or suggestive,” says Lehrer.
To read the full article, “The Trademark Name Game and 4 Steps to Master It,” please click here.