Names. Every startup brand needs one. Every noun has one. And for good reason too. Pick up a dictionary and you'll see many examples, page after page after page. It's like nouns are everywhere. Somebody somewhere was given the task of naming these nouns, finding a suitable configuration of vowels and consonants so that we can all universally agree to call a tree a 'tree'.

By dictionary definition, a tree is a woody perennial plant, typically having a single stem or trunk bearing lateral branches. But say the word 'tree' to someone and it will conjure up specific images in different peoples minds.

If you ask someone to draw a tree, you'll find you'll get a spectrum of results spanning an iconic Oak through to a Christmas Douglas Fir. It seems that although we've universally agreed to call a tree a 'tree', we can't universally agree on what a tree looks like.

So do some trees have more meaning to some than others? Maybe it's psychological? Oaks can be seen as strong, academic, traditional, and independent, whereas a fir could be more closely attributed to expansive forests, evergreen, freshness and Christmas. Or maybe one is just easier to draw than the other. Who knows. The fact is, a tree, is a tree, is a tree.

The idea of a tree, therefore, belongs to no one. Who says so? The Intellectual Property Office, that's who.

If you haven't had the pleasure of making acquaintance with the IPO, then you haven't given serious consideration to protecting your brand name.

So you're planning on registering your trademark?

Firstly lets clear something up. You don't have to apply for a trademark to be able to trademark (put a little TM by your logo). The purpose of the TM is to tell everyone else that you intend to register it as a trademark, but until your trademark has been registered it doesn't offer any protection under trademark laws. And you should apply because you have nothing to lose. If you apply for a registered trademark and you get refused, you can still carry on using that little TM.

For those that manage to successfully register their trademark, you can adorn your startup brand with that ® symbol, which carries a lot more weight, is way cooler, and puts the icy fear of legal action into the hearts of your competitors. Nothing quite says 'don't touch my brand fool' like a ® in the upper right-hand corner.

But the trademark application registration process can be timely and costly and if you go into it blindly the Intellectual Property Office will gladly and indiscriminately take your money and chew you up and spit you out. So how can you guarantee registration success? Well, you can't. Sorry. You have no control whatsoever. The good news however is that's all the bad news out of the way. Take a walk with me and I'll explain.

Play the game

The Intellectual Property Office has a job to do. It's similar in a way to getting planning permission for your loft conversion from your local council. If you stick to certain expectations and don't throw them any curve-balls then they'll hit your brand registration out of the park. So what are they looking for? What boxes can you help them tick? What sweet nothings should you whisper in their ear?

There are a number of factors that will dictate if your brand name falls flat on its face at the first hurdle or springs with the grace of a gazelle to the finish line. 

Make it distinctive

What do we mean by distinctive? Basically, if you're a baker and your branding features a loaf of bread as your main brand mark, then you're going to get laughed out of the IPO. Why? Because other brands of bakers rely on the very same imagery to inform customers that their goods and services are to do with baking. You basically can't claim rights to any industry visual vernacular. Loaves of bread, wheatsheaves, flour, rolling pins, chefs hats – forget them. Sorry, clip-art cheapskates.

This is true as much for your brand name as it is for the visual elements of your brand. If your company sells Avocados, then don't expect to get away with literally calling your company 'Avocado'. However, using 'Avocado' for a company that exclusively sells Private Healthcare would be seen as distinctive within that industry.

And if you think that's unfairly restrictive then brands using shapes have separate considerations. If your branding features a basic shape or series of shapes, then you can typically expect your application to be rejected. Why?

Shapes aren't distinctive enough to provide grounds for ownership. Remember our tree? If you're selling oranges and your brand identity features an orange circle, then you've failed before you've left the gates. Any general shapes used in a brand or logo that have a direct reference to the service or goods will more often than not be rejected. 

And for the love of God, don't use protected emblems such as national flags, institutional logos, coats of arms. That's not to say it's out of the question, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Registering a shape within the three-dimensional realm such as branded packaging is a completely different matter. Think about iconic Toblerone for a moment. Would you honestly consider producing a triangular chocolate brand without coming into heavy conflict with that nougat centered confectionary goliath? 

Colour

Colour, oh boy. Single or combinations of colour could be registered as a trademark, but as with shapes, they need to bring distinction to the offering. If you sell lawn seed, then you almost certainly won't be able to trademark the colour green, because it's deemed as belonging to the industry visual language. It's a functional colour that industries need to utilise in their every day-to-day. And before you say it – 'No, John Deere doesn't own green'. That's a myth. Tiffany blue and Cadburys purple, however, are untouchable by any other jewellers or confectionary manufacturer and have earned them much brand equity of their lifetime.

Know your neighbours

This one is a no brainer. When applying for brand registration, if your brand or logo mark looks similar to another company, then please don't forget to close the door on your way out. I'm not just referring to brands that already exist in real-world terms, you'll need to check not only all the live applications but also through existing earlier applications to ensure the brand mark you're trying to register isn't already going through the application process. Worse still, if there's an application that's similar to yours and has been rejected, then you can be fairly certain you'll suffer the same fate. So you'll need to do a great deal of curtain-twitching to spot existing, expired and recently deceased applications. 

Similarities aren't just visual. Your brand mark will be judged based on how it sounds phonetically. If your brand name 'sounds' the same as another brand's, then that's also going to be a sticking point. 

Acquired distinctiveness

Guess what though, your mark can actually acquire distinction over time. If you have a history of prior registrations of a brand mark or you can prove that you've been using your brand mark for 5 years or more then that certainly goes in your favour. Which brings us onto a very important, more immediately pressing point which, in hindsight, I should have covered earlier on…

How soon should you apply?

OMG, you're still here? OK, don't panic but I should warn you that the trademark application process operates on a 'first come, first served' basis. Now given that you don't technically need to have your brand registered to legally use it, it's best to apply for registration as soon as possible ahead of your brand going to market.

There are added benefits. The process of early application will reveal any other registrations, existing or pending that may be similar which will help you steer around any accidental 'infringement'. Worst-case scenario you stumble across someone who has already registered your brand name or mark who could (and let's be honest probably will) block your application. No refund for you and nothing left to do but to announce the news to your brand agency. Ker-ching.

Getting the wheels in motion will ensure that your brand can hit the floor running when you finally get to market and also protects you from any other application from making claims against you who may have the same name or brand mark. "But I was here first" is a childish argument, but seems to hold up well at a tribunal.

Once you have your registration it's good for 10 years and you're pretty much guaranteed from that point onwards to have bulletproof grounds to block any pending registrations. 

But wait, there's more

Legalities and registrations aside for a moment, there are a few good reasons why you should include or fully impart the responsibility of naming your brand to your brand agency. 

Here's a familiar scene. I'm sat nursing a coffee across the table from a client who has just revealed how they're going to change the world and their plans to become the next household name, a global brand. After the room settles and the applause fades I would typically reply "That's wonderful. And your brand name is?" to which they reply "It's '____________' and don't worry, domain name availability isn't a problem, we've already checked. And we're in the process of registering the name."

Why domain availability is seen by startups to be the single most important hurdle to get over when creating a brand name is beyond me. They head straight to a domain name service company under the illusion that if the domain name is available, then the world has given them their blessing and consent to push onwards and upwards. 

Most agencies worth their salt will offer a name generation service and for good reason:

• It's a source of revenue 
• It's one thing they know more about than most
• There are forces at work you may not be aware of
• They'll ultimately be the one's shaping your brand
• They're a guiding light to getting your brand registered 

When I see a brand name in its humblest of typed form there are a few features that I'm instinctively drawn to, potential brand landmarks that could be leveraged for distinctiveness.

For example, what are the letterforms and characters doing? Do they rise and fall? Do they all sit on the baseline? What's the general rhythm that the characters create within the brand name. Are there any repeated characters and whereabout do they sit? Is the brand name naturally rounded and soft (o's, a's, g's and c's) or angular and harsh (v's, w's, y's and z's)? Does the brand name lend itself more to an ALL CAPS, lowercase or cursive script formatting? Serif, non-serif or humanist. Comic sans?

Size and length can be a consideration. Shorter punchier names can occupy space better and are arguably easier to remember. Longer names can sometimes be phonetically clumsy, sound awkward.

Having an abstract name can also work in your favour, especially when it comes to securing a registration and domain name for that matter. But I'm personally not a fan of completely random brand names that mean absolutely nothing and require a strapline to explain what you're potentially buying into. Abstract names should be at best: 

• catchy
• easy to remember
• east to pronounce
• nice sounding
• have some reference (however tenuous) to the main service offer

Take 'Skype' for example. The brand Skype was originally going to be called 'Skye-Peer-to-Peer, which was shortened to 'Skyper' before it finally after much brand agency beard-stroking was shortened to 'Skype'. Result! And those letterforms lend themselves rather nicely to that cloudesque logo formatting. 

If you're considering an abstract brand name, be very careful about how this may translate globally. There have been some marketing clangers over the years that have left even the top brands blushing. 

• When Ford released their car brand the Pinto into Brazil, they neglected to realise that Pinto translated to 'small male genitals'. 
• Mazda blindly launched their 'Laputa' brand into Spain unaware that the word La Puta means prostitute
• The Honda Jazz was once the Fritta. to the Norwegians, Danish and the Sweedish, the word Fritta is a vulgar word referring to a woman's genitals
• Colgate launched its toothpaste brand 'Cue' to the French oblivious that it shared the same name with a pornographic magazine

Yep. If you're going with an abstract name, then ensure it means absolutely nothing to anyone in the world. You could go the way of Exxon and get a computer to randomly generate one. Ensure to feature a healthy amount of X's and you'll have something visually striking also.

Funnel Vision not Tunnel vision

I like to think that as a brand designer I can bring a lot to the table at this very crucial stage of a brands life. Allow me to big myself up by saying that I have more of a funnel vision perspective of what a brand name needs to be, the space in which it needs to exist and compete, a broader picture of rollout across mixed mediums and social platforms. 

To have a client arrive with a brand name already decided upon with no real evidence of research or rationale always leaves me feeling that there's been an opportunity lost. 

Brand aspirations

The ultimate goal with any brand name is to acquire 'brand equity'. When your brand has become synonymous with a quality, considered to be the gold standard, untouchable and incomparable. Can you image that? Is there anything more you could ask from your brand? 

Well yes.

Rather than aiming to be in the fortune 500, there's a far more valuable listing your brand should aspire to be included in. A certain book that says to your competitors that you've acquired the un-acquirable, reached maximum brand equity and that there are no more worlds to conquer.

This little book I'm referring to is 'The Dictionary'. 

Is there no brand status higher than having 'The Dictionary' defining your brand name as a noun? Is that even possible? Yes, it's possible. Think about it for a moment. Do people generally do the 'vacuum-cleaning' or the 'Hoovering'? Do they own a 'vacuum-cleaner' or a 'Hoover'? I can personally say that even when I'm pushing my Dyson around, in my head I'm Hoovering.

And that's where you want your brand name to be. You want your brand name to be occupying space in peoples subconscious. Do that and you've hit brand equity gold. 

There's nothing left to prove. 

You're done. 

Drop the mic and exit stage left.

What did we learn?

Take your brand name seriously. Give the name generation exercise the attention and consideration it deserves to ensure it's memorable and easier to register. Don't be fooled into thinking that if the domain name is available, you have the green light. There's no sadder story to hear from a client than the one where they have to rebrand shortly after launch. Having websites patched up, signage brought down, vehicle vinyls peeled off, offices refurbished, tags and labels unstitched is something no brand agency wants to see a client go through. 

Some handy tools and references (You're welcome)

The Vienna Logo Classification

Used by 60 trademark offices worldwide, the Vienna Classification is an international system used to classify all visual elements of a brand mark. Imagine if Darwin was to classify clip-art into 29 general categories, further divided into various and more particular divisions and sections, you'd be partly there.

WIPO Trademark search

Now armed with your clipart classification from your trip to the Vienna Logo Classification site, you can hone your search to conduct a preliminary trademark search. The results should throw up everyone and anyone who applied for registration. The failures, the pending, and the smug successful applicants.

EUIPO

Closer to home is the European Union of Intellectual Property. They have a pretty solid search engine that embodies much of the Vienna Classification (although they tend to use a more modified version). You should certainly start here if your brand is UK based or EU bound.