It’s all in a name
From Module 2 of Creating Your Awesome Brand, A Complete Course for Beauty Professionals
Your salon brand name helps communicate your salon brand story and helps connect you to the clients, teams, and tenants you wish to serve. And part of naming your salon brand is knowing if it is available to use and hasn’t been trademarked by another salon.
A trademark is part of your salon brand’s intellectual property, which holds immense value and is worthy of protection.
Trademarks protect the investment you made in creating your salon brand name, including your signage, website address, social and digital page names, printed materials, etc.
Last week I had three conversations with salon owners on trademarks, and it has been a highly misunderstood part of brand development in the salon industry, so I want to bring attention to trademarks and your salon brand name. This is what we share with our clients in One On Ones, in A School and also in Creating Your Awesome Brand, a complete course for beauty professionals.
In one conversation, the salon was told by ‘experts’ that they did not need to trademark their salon brand name. It took me less than one minute doing a search on the USPTO website (the US patent and trademark database) to learn someone already has the name trademarked in Class 44, the trademark class for salons. UGH.
While I am not a trademark attorney and am not, and will never give you legal advice, I have three decades of trademark experience, being responsible for some of the most valuable trademarks in the professional salon product space, including receiving a gazillion cease and desist letters from conglomerates with way more attorneys on staff than I had, along with helping our clients the last twelve years at Passion Squared.
Things To Consider When Creating Your Salon Brand Name
- Is the name aligned with your salon brand story?
- Is the name already trademarked in the Class you want to use it for? (Hair salons are Class 44)
- Is the name available as a web address and site?
- Is the name available to use as your brand email address?
- Is the name available on social pages?
- Is the name available on digital pages?
Trademark Investment
- USPTO Directly $250 + (I don’t usually recommend this as it can be overwhelming for some)
- Legal Zoom $649 +
- Attorney $2000 + est It takes anywhere from six months to one year to secure a registered trademark, depending on the USPTO and the complexity of the mark.
Cost of Creating A New Salon Brand Name If Your Current Name Is Trademarked by Another Salon
- New website address
- New email addresses
- New social page names
- New digital page names
- New signage
- New printed materials
- TIME ENERGY MONEY ++++++++
This is just one of many tools and strategies inside the Creating Your Awesome Brand, a complete course for beauty professionals. Because when you have clarity around your salon brand, you have a strong foundation to make more aligned decisions, save a ton of time, money, and energy, and feel more confidence, courage, and joy. Click here to learn more.
Much love, in service to you-
Nina