An occasional look at issues facing Wyoming business owners and entrepreneurs from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.
By Monica Jo Patten, research and commercialization director, Wyoming SBDC Network
Naming and creating brand assets for your company can be fun brainstorming activities.
However, many founders learn about marketing as they develop their business. They may not realize that doing some pre-work before naming their company can make their business name more easily found and more trustworthy to customers. Using free search tools early in the process can help you ensure that your name and brand assets are suitable for your needs.
-- Check for trademarks: Start your search by checking for existing federal and state trademarks. By ensuring your company name is not already trademarked by another business, you can avoid potential lawsuits and verify that you can create an online presence for your company. The federal United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is at www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search, and Wyoming trademark search pages are at https://trademarks.wyo.gov.
Before you go public with your name, you may want to protect it with a trademark. Trademarks are relatively inexpensive and simple to obtain. If you need legal advice, be sure to contact an attorney. The Wyoming SBDC Network is an educational resource and cannot provide legal advice.
To learn about USPTO trademark application instructions, go to www.uspto.gov/trademarks/apply. To learn about USPTO trademark fees, go to www.uspto.gov/trademarks/trademark-fee-information.
-- Search your name online: After checking for trademarks, use search engines, such as Google, to look up your potential company name.
Website domains: Check if any websites are already using your name in their domain. You also will want to check for availability across multiple website extensions, including e.g., .com, .org and .net.
Social media: Search all social media platforms to see whether your name is taken as a social media handle. It’s a good idea to claim these handles early so customers can find you easily in the future. Even if you don’t plan to use a specific platform, you may want to grab the handle to prevent customer confusion.
Email address: Ensure that you can get a professional email address domain for your company.
Similar names: While doing these searches, check for similar names that could potentially confuse customers.
-- Check for trustworthiness: Besides checking for availability, you also will want to see if your name has any potential trust issues.
Past use: Has your name ever been used by a closed business with unfavorable practices?
Double meanings: Could the name have a double meaning that might impact your trustworthiness?
Acronyms and initials: Acronyms can sometimes be a source of problems, as they can have many different meanings in different contexts. A poorly chosen name could be a source of humor at best or, at worst, it could damage your trustworthiness to the point that customers won’t buy from you.
When naming your company, ask what your potential customers, friends and family think of the name.
-- Review your brand assets: Similarly, you will want to check whether your potential logo or other brand assets could cause confusion.
Logo design: When designing a logo, make sure the design is simple enough to be legible when reduced in size or reproduced in black and white.
International presence: If you expand internationally, check if the logo would be simple enough to be associated with your brand and would be acceptable to different cultures.
If you would like to speak with an adviser about your potential company name and logo, you can reach out to your local Wyoming SBDC regional director. Regional directors provide no-cost advising on all aspects of your business. Additionally, the statewide Market Research Center, Wyoming APEX Accelerator, Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WISSI) and Federal and Technical Assistance (FAST) specialists can help you with market research, grants and government contracting. To get started, find your local regional director at www.wyomingsbdc.org/contact/.
The Wyoming SBDC Network offers no-cost advising and technical assistance to help Wyoming entrepreneurs think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. In 2024, the Wyoming SBDC Network helped Wyoming entrepreneurs start 46 new businesses; support 1,870 jobs; and bring a capital impact of $2.9 million to the state. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu or write Dept. 3922, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071-3922.
For more information, go here.
