Common Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Secure Brand

As a small business owner, you’re focused on many things: standing out, building your clientele, growing your revenue, and cutting through the noise of market competition. One critically important aspect of brand building often falls through the cracks: brand security.

Brand security is essential for protecting your intellectual property, ideas, and visual assets before nefarious actors can steal, profit from, or even trademark them before you do. Your business means the world to you, so it’s crucial to take steps to ensure that what you’re building is legally protected. A proactive approach to legally securing your branding, especially early on, will keep you from losing everything you’ve poured your heart and soul into.

Read on to learn about some of the most common brand security mistakes business owners make and how to avoid them.

Why Brand Security is Crucial For Businesses At Every Stage

For many business owners, the idea that a brand security issue may arise seems unlikely, particularly early on. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Intellectual property infringement cases or contract disputes can occur at any point in your business journey. They can also be costly and time-consuming, often taking up considerable energy and resources that brand owners could instead use to grow their business.

Thanks to the internet and the online nature of most businesses today, the issue of intellectual property theft is only increasing. IP theft costs American businesses approximately $600 billion annually. Stealing an entire brand identity is often as simple as copying and pasting a few lines of code. Nefarious actors can easily steal your brand elements and pass them off as their own with almost no effort.

Small-scale businesses are often targeted explicitly because they lack the significant legal resources and recourse of bigger brands. Countless small businesses have shuttered because their branding, ideas, and revenue were stolen in the digital marketplace. Even large international companies have been criticized for stealing proprietary brand elements from smaller creators with almost no legal consequences.

Most Common Brand Security Mistakes

Having your reputation damaged by thieves who steal your work and pass it off as their own can be a massive setback for a growing business. Taking a proactive approach and recognizing common, costly mistakes can help you protect your investment. 

Mistake #1: Using Unoriginal Branding Elements

Creating your brand's visual identity without ensuring originality can lead to significant legal and marketing challenges. As a small business owner, it's easy to fall into the trap of adopting logos, slogans, or brand names that closely resemble existing trademarks without realizing, especially when drawing inspiration from prevalent trends or popular designs. This lack of originality not only dilutes your brand’s unique appeal but also puts you at risk of committing trademark infringement. Accidentally using elements that are already trademarked by another business can lead to legal disputes, force you to redesign your brand identity, and may cause substantial financial and reputational damage to your business.

Alternative: Perform a Thorough Clearance Search With the Help of a Trademark Attorney

Failing to take this critical step can result in inadvertent trademark infringement. This could mean completely overhauling your brand identity to avoid continued infringement, or it could even result in other brands taking legal action against you.

Working with a knowledgeable and experienced trademark attorney early on can help you avoid these costly and potentially reputation-damaging legal issues before they occur. Consider discussing your ideas with your attorney before finalizing your designs to avoid the heavy costs of repeatedly redoing your branding.

Mistake #2: Using Poorly Drafted Contracts

Contracts are the backbone of secure business operations, and using poorly drafted agreements can significantly jeopardize your legal standing. For small businesses, the temptation to DIY legal contracts to save money is high, but this approach can lead to dire consequences. Improperly drafted contracts might not only fail to protect your interests but could also damage client relationships and partnerships. In the worst cases, such contracts can result in costly legal disputes, including lawsuits claiming breach of contract.

Alternative: Use Lawyer-Drafted Contracts

Utilize lawyer-drafted contracts to ensure your business agreements are thorough and legally sound. These contracts, crafted by lawyers familiar with the nuances of contract law and the specifics of your industry, provide a strong foundation for protecting your interests and maintaining professional relationships. They help prevent common issues such as scope creep, misaligned goals, and other potential miscommunications.

If you're on a limited budget, consider using professionally drafted contract templates as a cost-effective alternative. These templates can be customized to fit your specific needs and still offer significant legal safeguards. By starting with a template created by a lawyer, you can ensure your operations are safeguarded while managing costs effectively, thereby maintaining the integrity and professionalism of your client and partner engagements.

Ready to safeguard your business with lawyer-drafted contract templates? Click here to visit my contract template shop!

Mistake #3: Neglecting Brand Monitoring

Brand monitoring and analysis are essential for many reasons, and protecting your trademark is one of them. If any of your competitors start to steal your ideas, intellectual property, or even visual assets, you’ll likely need to perform constant monitoring to get ahead of them before too much damage is done.

Brand monitoring won’t wholly prevent your property from being stolen, but it can help you proactively observe potential theft in your niche. Your proactive approach can also help you discourage potential infringement through cease and desist letters and other deterrents.

Alternative: Monitor Your Brand with the Support of a Lawyer

Instead of spending hours each day manually monitoring the competition, partner with a trademark attorney to streamline this process. A skilled attorney can implement advanced monitoring systems that operate efficiently in the background, ensuring that your brand remains protected while you focus on growing your business. Experienced trademark attorneys bring a depth of knowledge about potential legal threats and the most effective courses of action. They can quickly identify risks and take swift action to mitigate them, often before serious damage occurs. This approach not only saves you time but also enhances the security of your brand with professional oversight.

Mistake #4: Failing to Educate Contractors/Employees About the Handling of Proprietary Information

As a business owner, the legal buck stops with you, including how well your team handles sensitive, proprietary information. While your employees and contractors may excel in their designated roles, they might not fully grasp the nuances of intellectual property laws and the handling of proprietary information. It's crucial to keep your team informed about what is permissible – and what isn’t – to safeguard your brand.

For instance, consider a scenario where your social media manager posts a catchy image they believe aligns perfectly with your brand. If your social media manager didn’t secure the appropriate license to use that image, your business could suddenly face serious legal challenges and public backlash.

Alternative: Provide Training and Partner with an Attorney

To secure the integrity of your business's intellectual property and other proprietary information, implement clear protocols that outline how these assets are handled and disseminated. Establish a rigorous review process to ensure all business materials, whether for social media, marketing, or internal use, are thoroughly vetted prior to release. It’s crucial to provide detailed training for all team members upon onboarding, with periodic refreshers to underscore the importance of adhering to these protocols and to highlight the repercussions of mishandling proprietary information.

Collaboration with a knowledgeable attorney is also ideal. An experienced lawyer can help draft and review contracts for employees and contractors that specifically address the management of your business’s proprietary information. They can also assist in creating comprehensive employee handbooks and standard operating procedures that clearly outline these protocols, and support you in monitoring the ongoing use and distribution of proprietary information, ensuring consistent compliance and safeguarding your assets from potential legal challenges.

Start Your Trademark Process Today

The best time to secure your brand is as early as possible to avoid costly legal disputes and other potential setbacks. Proactively protecting all facets of your brand—not just through trademarks but also via comprehensive contracts, rigorous copyright protocols, and clear operational guidelines—can save your business considerable time, money, and stress. This approach not only shields your intellectual property but also enhances your professional credibility, facilitating lucrative collaborations, partnerships, and client relationships.

Reach out today for a free consultation! Together, we can assess your brand’s security needs and begin the trademark registration process, developing a comprehensive protection strategy that safeguards your intellectual property and supports your brand's expansion.

Disclaimer: This post is for legal education purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. No attorney-client relationship has been formed. To the extent this post constitutes attorney advertising, past results do not guarantee similar outcomes.