576: (Solo) This One Trademark Mistake Nearly Killed My Business - Here's What I Learnt

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0:39Just head to omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey guys, Nathan Chan here. Welcome to a new series in the founder podcast. It's a founder to founder episode. These are around 10 minute episodes where I share valuable lessons that I've learned on my journey in hope to help you guys on yours. Now, there's a new series that we're testing. We'd love your feedback. Just shoot me a message on Instagram at Nathan Chan or at Founder. We'd love to hear from you and your feedback. So today I want to share one of the most terrifying moments in my business.

1:20It was one of the hardest days, weeks, months where I was sued for trademark infringement for my business and I had to change the name. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan.

1:42So a few months into launching Founder, it wasn't called Founder, it was called Key to Success Magazine. And I never forget, I got this FedEx package in the mail serving me, saying I was to appear in Dallas, Texas. I can't remember exactly when it was, but it was a few months from when I received the package. And I also got an email around that time as well from a lawyer saying, hey, if you didn't know you're being sued, we need to act fast. I was mentored by the judge. You need representation. And I was like, oh my God, is this sophisticated spam? What the hell is going on? And I remember feeling just so terrified, so worried.

2:21This is my first business, guys. I was like, I'm going to go bankrupt. I even remember one of my mentors saying like, well, do you have any money, Nathan? I'm like, no. I started Founder with like a few thousand dollars off the back of a credit card. But it was so terrifying. And I remember thinking to myself, I don't know what I'm doing. There's this big, massive company that wants to sue me. How do I get out of this? What do I do? And so really, I had two options. I would either fight and try and protect the name and the name was called Key to Success or I would change the name. So I actually got advice from somebody, a friend of a friend, and I chose to pivot and I changed the name to Founder.

3:04And it was really just a blessing in disguise because it is a far better name. And we wrote back to them and I said, look guys, we don't have any money, but we will change the name. And what I learned was when it comes to these kinds of legal things, sometimes people just want to win. And the win for them was they're protecting their brand and I'm changing the name. And then they asked for some money and I said, look, I can't afford it. And then they didn't pursue it. And so in the end, it was a massive blessing in disguise because if you look at the name founder, it's like synonymous amongst entrepreneurship.

3:40And the reason that I took out the E is because I never wanted to be sued again. And like there was no brand out there with founder without, you know, the incorrect spelling, even though I could have launched hypothetically with founder with correct spelling. And we own that word in this space anyways. So this was a super scary time and I felt like a failure. I felt like I was going to lose everything and so much anxiety. And for anyone that, you know, goes through something like this, just know that there's always light at the end of the tunnel just know that you will work this out it won't be like this forever and that's you know in that time that's how I felt and it was it was the best thing that could ever happen to me honestly and this is what happens when you have these massive roadblocks so here are the key mistakes that I made and how you can avoid them first and foremost I felt like I knew inside of me that I was pushing it with the name key to success.

4:36There was a part of me, there was something that was inside of me, in my gut, knowing, you know, I could do this, but I doubt this will happen. And I swear to you, anytime that thought goes through your mind, I could do this, but it might be pushing it. There was something in the back of my mind subconsciously where I was like, oh my God. And like they had grounds, they owned the trademark and I was infringing, like it was bad, right? So that's the first lesson. If it feels like, okay, maybe I'm pushing it, don't push it. The second thing is whenever you're starting your brand, go through, look up and see if a trademark is available.

5:14Look at other marks, see if this word, this name exists and don't push it. Please do not push it. Then also, once your brand does have traction, make sure you trademark, right make sure you set up the right protection it was still early days for me i didn't know anything about trademark law but the simple thing is once you launch a brand once you get traction start to look to protect it and then the third thing is pick a name that is unique and memorable but know that your name for your business is what you make of it i never forget when i was trying to come up with a new name a mentor said to me he said nathan what does uber mean what does Tinder mean?

5:58What does Facebook mean? What does Snapchat mean? All these brands, all these names, they mean something by what the company and what the founder has made of it. So you have the opportunity when you're starting a brand, whatever name, you can make it something, right? It doesn't have to be special. It doesn't have to be fancy. But what I will say is I like one word. You look at incredible companies or the best brands out there like Nike, like Apple, they're all one word. So I like one word. It's simple. It's memorable. But that's my lesson. That's my personal preference. So it's also worth noting that what is in a name is your brand.

6:37And that comes down to your values. It comes down to consistently showing up and building that brand over time and building a community, right? Your name is your brand. And really, the way you build an incredible brand is how you make people feel by consistently showing up, consistently having clear, strong values. And it takes time, right? It takes time to build a brand. It takes time to build a name. And I found from my experience, you know, it took at least three to five years before founder really, really, really come into its name, really, really, really come into its brand where it came and it was unique, it was special, and it owned its own field.

7:20So if you're just starting out, coming up with your brand, coming up with your name, I hope this is a valuable lesson for you. I hope this story really, really helps you. And just remember what happened to me was an amazing thing. I'm so grateful that I got sued in the first four months of business. I learned some really hard lessons. I'm happy that it happened early, so it didn't take long. I only had four months of stuff to change. Imagine if I had like two years worth of stuff to change. And then also just remember, if you have to change your name, if you have to change your brand, it's okay.

7:52That's what business is all about. You have to be prepared to pivot and you make mistakes and I've made plenty and this is what business is all about. And this is a big one that I've made that I hope you guys can learn from this lesson. So guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, as I shared before, please write to me on Instagram, Nathan Chan, write to us on at founder on Instagram. We'd love to hear from you if you found this enjoyable. And then also, if you are looking to start an e-commerce brand, you're in the early stages, make sure you sign up to our Start Your E-commerce Store Summit.

8:27This is an incredible three-day event. It's 100 % free. We've got some of the best people in the world teaching all the things that you need to know when it comes to starting your e-commerce brand, like finding your product idea, validating it, sourcing it, going out there and marketing it, having an epic pre-launch, running ads, doing influencer marketing. It is incredible. It's 100 % free and you can sign up at founder.com forward slash summit. All right, guys, I'll see you on another episode.