I am in the final throws of launching my startup. A name has been chosen (which I have grown quite attached to), and now its time to address trademarking. Its a bootstrapped startup, using what time and money I can save from my day job, and $18k+ with single-class global registration is so far out of my league I was wondering:<p>1) Is a trademark important in this day and age? I already hold the domain - isn't that enough?<p>2) If i DONT have the trademark, could someone else register it and stop me trading under that name?<p>3) As a generic web application, what classes and communities should I be targeting to get good coverage for the least expense?<p>4) What sort of protection do other HN startups tend to go for when launching their products?
I only know German law and I am not a lawyer - but a friend of mine is one and we often discuss those topics.<p>1) Important: Depends. If you have unfriendly competitors they may have a look at the trademark registration database, see that you have not registered a trademark and do so themselves. A domain is not enough.<p>2) Yes. Usually every company with +5 people working for the company has (easily) the resources to do that.<p>3) -<p>4) We have not registered any trademarks but we are in an early stage. I am pretty sure that we will register something shortly after a successful public launch.
Trademark is an expense. You are startup and you need to make an expense only if it brings something to you.<p>You are launching so right now your mark is worth nothing, so $18K or any other amount is just not worth it.<p>Launch, if you are successful and I mean successful in terms of revenue and profits (not user base) then you can start thinking of the trademark.