What’s in a name? More than most business owners realize.
One of the most valuable assets your company will ever own isn’t sitting on your lot, parked in your driveway, or stored in your warehouse. It’s your brand. Your company name, logo, reputation, website, and the trust you’ve earned with customers may eventually become more valuable than the inventory you sell. The problem is that many business owners don’t think about protecting those things until someone else tries to claim them. I know because it happened to me.
When I think about iconic brands, the obvious ones come to mind. Coca-Cola. Apple. Microsoft. Ford. Honda. Spotify. Those companies have spent decades building recognition and trust. The moment you hear their name, you already have an opinion of the company behind it. While most of us aren’t running billion-dollar corporations, the same principle applies to every shed dealership, manufacturer, transporter, or supplier in our industry. Your brand is your reputation, and your reputation has value.
What if someone woke up tomorrow and decided they were going to file a trademark using your company name? What if they tried to register your logo or even your slogan? Most people would probably laugh and say, “That could never happen.”
I used to think the same thing.
Sometimes I think I’ve seen just about everything in business. Over the years, I’ve purchased several domain names connected to the Shed Geek brand simply because I thought I might expand into different areas someday. It wasn’t because those businesses already existed. It was because I wanted to protect opportunities I hoped to create in the future. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way. I’ve watched people purchase domains simply to keep someone else from using them. That’s hard enough to believe, but it isn’t even the craziest thing I’ve experienced.
Not long ago, I discovered someone attempting to file trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office using my name, my logo, my website, and my brand. That’s a strange feeling. Thankfully, because I had already taken steps to protect my brand, those applications were denied. Could I have fought it through the legal system if things had gone differently? Absolutely. But legal battles are expensive, time-consuming, and distracting. The cost of protecting your brand on the front end is almost always less than trying to recover it after someone else attempts to take it.
That experience reminded me of something else I’ve learned over the years. The shed industry has always been built on relationships. I still believe in looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand, and doing exactly what you said you were going to do. That’s still my preferred way of doing business. Unfortunately, experience has also taught me that memories fade, circumstances change, and people often remember conversations differently than they happened. Good paperwork doesn’t replace trust. It protects it. Having clear agreements that explain ownership, responsibilities, expectations, and intellectual property can save an incredible amount of stress if disagreements ever arise. While you may never convince the jury in the court of Facebook, you can certainly protect yourself in the eyes of the law.
One misconception I hear quite often is, “I paid someone to design my logo, so I own it.” Maybe. Maybe not. Paying someone to create a logo doesn’t automatically give you the strongest legal protection. Without turning this into a legal seminar, copyright and trademark are different. A logo may qualify for copyright protection as artwork, but its true business value comes from trademark protection because it identifies your company in the marketplace. I love this simple way of thinking about it: a logo is artwork until it becomes a brand. Trademark law protects the brand.
Another thing that surprises people is that your company name may eventually become more valuable than your inventory. That sounds crazy until you think about today’s marketplace. Your website, Google Business Profile, online reviews, search rankings, social media presence, and customer trust all become attached to your business name. Over time, that name develops equity.
I see businesses throughout our industry using remarkably similar names. Most of the time there’s no bad intent. People simply like the same words or want to honor local traditions. The problem is that customers become confused. Search engines become confused. Sometimes even government agencies become confused. If another company begins operating under a name that’s confusingly like yours, your reputation and your online visibility can suffer. Even if you ultimately prove you’re in the right, you’ve still spent valuable time and money fixing a problem that could have been avoided.
One temptation for new business owners is to say, “We’ll trademark it later.” I understand the thinking. Why spend money protecting something that hasn’t made much money yet? The problem is that someone else may get there first. In my own situation, having my trademark already established prevented someone else from temporarily controlling my brand. Had that not been the case, I could have spent thousands of dollars trying to recover what I’d spent years building. Imagine replacing every sign, truck wrap, website, business card, social media account, brochure, shirt, and advertisement because someone else now owns the name you’ve been promoting. Suddenly, filing that trademark early doesn’t seem nearly as expensive.
I should also mention that I’m not an attorney, and nothing in this column should be considered legal advice. If you have questions about trademarks or copyrights, talk with someone who specializes in intellectual property law. I’m simply sharing lessons I’ve learned, many of them the hard way. From my understanding, copyright generally protects creative works such as photographs, website copy, videos, podcasts, brochures, marketing graphics, installation manuals, and 3D renderings.
One lesson we’ve learned through our own marketing agency is that just because something appears on Google doesn’t mean it’s free to use. We’ve made mistakes ourselves, not because we intentionally copied someone else’s work, but because we trusted people who should have known better. Ultimately, that’s still our responsibility. Thankfully, we corrected those mistakes, removed the content, communicated with the people involved, and learned valuable lessons that we haven’t forgotten.
Of course, today’s conversations almost always include artificial intelligence. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of AI. I use it almost every day. Like any powerful tool, though, it must be used responsibly. Asking AI to rewrite another company’s website, generate artwork that closely resembles someone else’s work, or create marketing materials based on copyrighted content can create problems you never intended. Sometimes infringement happens because people simply don’t know better. Other times it’s intentional. Either way, it’s worth slowing down long enough to ask whether you’re creating something original or simply recreating someone else’s intellectual property.
One of the most common examples I see involves photography. A new dealer wants a professional-looking website before they have inventory available for photos, so they borrow pictures from another dealer, download images from Facebook, or copy photos from a manufacturer’s website. I’ve watched friendships become strained over situations exactly like this. Usually, nobody intended to steal anything. They simply wanted a nice-looking website. But the person who spent thousands of dollars creating those images understandably sees things differently. The same applies to videos, drone footage, brochures, graphics, and social media posts. Just because it’s online doesn’t make it public domain.
Another lesson that’s worth mentioning is to own your digital assets. This may be one of the most important pieces of advice in this entire article. I know someone who hired a company to build a website. They also allowed that company to register the domain name. When the business relationship eventually ended, the domain stayed with the company that purchased it, not the business that had spent years building traffic to it. Imagine waking up one morning to discover you don’t own your own website address. Whether it’s your domain, hosting account, Google Business Profile, podcast RSS feed, social media accounts, design files, or branding guide, you should always know exactly who owns what. If someone is managing those assets on your behalf, make sure it’s documented. Ownership should never be based on assumptions.
Most business owners insure their trucks, trailers, forklifts, buildings, inventory, and equipment without thinking twice. Yet many never take the time to protect the one asset that grows in value every single year. Their brand. Your reputation, your website, your customer relationships, your photos, your logo, your online reviews, and your company name are every bit as much an asset as the buildings sitting on your lot. In many cases, they’ll eventually become more valuable than the physical inventory you sell.
So, what’s in a name?
Quite a bit.
Protect it before someone else decides they’d like to own it instead.
