So here’s a sticky situation that is occurring more and more often: A new Virtual Assistant enters the scene and proudly announces her new business name to the world. Problem is, it is identical or nearly identical to the business name of an established Virtual Assistant.
Your business name is an important and valuable asset. It helps creates a unique and distinctive identity of your business in the marketplace. It helps facilitate brand name awareness and word-of mouth advertising. When someone copies your name or uses a derivative, it creates confusion and unfair competition. Whiles registering your tradename affords you the greatest rights and recourse, it’s not the only way to exercise your rights and protect your turf. There are common law protections as well. You do, however, have to actively protect your name or you lose the right to lay claim to it. It therefore becomes necessary for you to keep a vigilant eye open for infringements of this nature. The eyes and ears of your colleagues can be critical in this effort.
But forget legalities for the moment. Let’s look at this from a moral and ethical standpoint. Sometimes this is difficult, but it becomes less so when you first ask yourself the question: “How would I feel if it were done to me” or “How would I feel if that happened to me?”
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SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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1. Would you be upset if a new Virtual Assistant starting using your business name? Why or why not?
2. If you saw a new Virtual Assistant using a VA friend or colleague’s business name, would you say something to that new Virtual Assistant? Why or why not?
3. Would you let a colleague know if you saw a new Virtual Assistant using their established business name or a close enough derivative of it to be confusing? Why or why not?
6 Comments
Yes, yes and yes.
I’m presently going through my due diligence regarding a business name and assume those that have come before me have done the same. It’s hard but necessary work and I would expect the same from those that follow.
I just nixed my third name. I don’t know if this is the appropriate place to go into why (beyond the above reasons, and there are other reasons), but maybe Danielle, you could write a piece about “How to come up with a name”. Maybe you already have and I just haven’t read it yet. You’ve got a lot out there girl! Thanks for that!
Yes, I’d be upset, and the reason I know this is because there are several VAs out there with what I think is a derivative of my business name, and I’ve done nothing about it. I’ve done nothing about it because I’m not sure their business name could be considered a derivative of my business name. When I’m uncertain about something, I prefer to not raise a fuss.
If I saw a new VA using a business name that belonged to a colleague, I’d probably tell the colleague rather than the VA.
=>Donna Caissie, Virtual Assistant
ExtraOrdinary Assistance
va@extra-assist.com
Hi Danielle.
As I am in this situation myself I can say, yes I am annoyed. Why not angry you are perhaps asking? Well I’m really am not surprised it happened. I think it’s naive not to expect it. There are only so many variations on the VA phrase and its inevitable I think that there will be derivatives, if not a duplication of actual business names themselves. We are talking the world over here and within that there are different states, provinces, countries that all have their name registration guidelines, within their own region. The business name search guidelines are only for each region for duplication, not for the whole world. Also, with businesses registering as domain names with various available domain extensions (and more on the way) there are bound to be duplications from that corner as well.
I hear what you are saying and agree business owners need to protect their trademarks and copyrights but I think for business names, as they are being used from within different states/provinces/countries, there is separation, even if they are internet businesses. Also, the separation that distinguishes you from another business of the same name can come in many forms be it your personal name, the type of services you provide, your website (content/look/colors, etc.) and in those ways it is apparent to anyone who looks that your business is not the same as someone elses.
Also, for this reason, I think the single most important thing you can do for your business, especially an online business such as VA, is in addition to registering your business name is to obtain the .com version of your business name first, and your country extension secondary. I know many businesses don’t but that’s just my opinion. It solves many of the duplication problems as owning the .com extension then you, and you alone, control that business name on the WWW.
And lastly, I have tended to focus too much on what others were doing and found it was not moving me forward as I wanted. I was spending too much time checking out what the same name business or’competition’ was up to and who was doing what so that instead of being ‘proactive’ in moving my business forward I was being ‘reactive’ to what was going on around me. Not a good place to be. So I have made the decision to concentrate and focus on my niche and my business and on what I have to offer and how to best serve clients rather than what others are up to.
So IMO, basically I think being protective about your name is a losing battle and the word here is battle as that is what it will be. And who wants a constant battle. Yes, we should protect trademarks and copyrighted material – for sure. But, as for the (non-trademark) business name, well I think the best use of the time and energy it takes to fight over a name can be better spent setting our businesses apart from the duplicates by providing clients with each of our own unique personalities and services. Thanks.
Note to self: 1) work on brevity; 2) don’t comment in a rush or late at night!
If I may briefly, just modify the last line of my comment above,
“…setting our businesses apart from other same name businesses through branding & services, in addition to each VA’s unique personality, work ethic & style.
Nah, no need to work on brevity here.
It’s good to explore and put some critical thinking to things. Sometimes that takes more than just a few words. Don’t cut corners on your thought process–it’s valued and appreciated from this Gritty VA.
I think those are some good thoughts. It’s definitely important to make sure our time and energy is well-spent. I just want to make sure that you and others know that it’s not entirely fruitless or wasteful energy to protect your brand. And you do have recourses. While it may be naive to think that people aren’t going to duplicate, it’s nonetheless true that companies have very real rights and resources. And those who do wish to protect their trade name rights should not be held up or dismissed as being petty or wasting their energy. If it’s important to them, if the business and name they’ve invested in is very important to them, that’s just as valid a position as the position to do nothing.
I’m not trying to change your mind, just making it observation: from my perspective, it would seem that your position comes from at least some part of defeat. It comes across as \yeah, it bothers me, but I can’t do anything about it.\
What if people in our industry were held some standards and expectations of doing unto others, or at least adhering to what exists in the law?
What if industry leaders and organizations upheld those standards? What if they refused to condone or perpetuate infringements upon their sisters and brothers by saying \no\ to those folks who engage in known infringements?
Plus, if we don’t pay attention to these things, if we don’t raise the consciousness of new Virtual Assistant business owners and educate them about these things they may be ignorant about, not only will the practice be perpetuated, but they also then open themselves up to legal liabilities and possibly being sued by someone who does take their business and their tradename rights very seriously. So it doesn’t do them any good as well by allowing them to remain ignorant of these things.
As an example, here is a Virtual Assistant who infringed upon a national temp agency’s tradename: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/untitled.txt
Now, this is a worst case scenario. A VA practice and a temp agency are two different things, however, some might consider that they are in similar enough fields that the use is derivative or confusing enough to the market. Who knows how things would have worked out if the VA had the money to hire an attorney to defend or or if the case had actually gone to Court. But in this case, the VA didn’t have the financial means to defend against the action and now owes thousands based on simple default judgment.
The best thing, the right thing, for all parties is to simply not infringe. Do like Jenni is doing and engage in your due diligence. Check federal Trademark office registers. Check VA directories. Do name searches on various search engines. Search under variations of the name. Once you do hit upon one that you have every reason to believe is free and clear to use, then be sure and buy up all the domain extensions and even variations of the domain name to protect your own interests.
Of course, it will become more and more difficult for new folks to come up with origianl names, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it is a rightful and lawful requirement for them to do that.
I am actually in the process of looking for a new name, as too many companies, not just VA’s, have the same or close name. I have Googled the names, checked county and state records, and checked the Trademark and Patent Office. Once I settle on a name, I will trademark it. It is $350 per trademark. (name & logo are 2 trademarks) This way, I will have the legal rights to that name, and can enforce it on people who decide to use it.