By Hope Knight Garner, JD • Hope Garner Law, PLLC • Last Updated: May 4, 2026 You’ve spent months developing your brand name. You’ve registered the domain, designed the logo, and you’re ready to announce it to the world. But here’s the question most entrepreneurs skip — and one that can cost them everything: does […]
If you’re building a brand, creating content, or launching a product, you’re already sitting on intellectual property. The real question is: are you protecting it correctly—or at all? Most business owners (and frankly, a lot of lawyers outside IP) confuse trademarks, copyrights, and patents. That confusion can cost you money, leverage, and ownership rights. This […]
Learn what cannot be trademarked in the U.S., including generic terms, descriptive phrases, and prohibited marks. Avoid costly mistakes with this complete guide.
Learn how to protect your brand on social media using trademarks. Discover best practices for usernames, brand protection, enforcement, and avoiding infringement.
Learn how trademarks increase brand value, protect your business reputation, and create powerful intellectual property assets for entrepreneurs and digital creators.
Events can become incredibly valuable intellectual property. Whether you are hosting an annual conference, workshop series, retreat, festival, or online summit, the name of your event can become one of your most valuable business assets. But many event organizers fail to legally protect their event names—until someone else copies it. Trademark protection helps ensure that […]
Starting a business is exciting! You choose a name, design a logo, launch a website, and begin building momentum. But here’s the reality many founders discover too late: Your brand is only an asset if you legally own it. Every year, startups are forced to rebrand, lose domain names, or face legal threats because they […]
Most business owners understand trademark infringement. But few understand a powerful legal concept that can be just as serious: trademark dilution. Trademark dilution does not require customer confusion. It does not require direct competition. And it can create significant legal exposure, especially when a business adopts a name similar to a famous brand. If you […]
Building a brand takes time, money, and serious creativity—so the last thing you want is to lose your name, logo, or slogan because of a preventable trademark mistake. As a trademark attorney, I see the same missteps over and over again. Some cost entrepreneurs thousands of dollars to fix. Others force complete rebrands after years […]
If you’re building a brand, whether that’s a coaching program, online course, clothing line, software platform, or service-based business, protecting your name, logo, or slogan is critical. A question I constantly hear from entrepreneurs is: “Do I really need a trademark attorney to file my trademark… or can I just do it myself?” Short answer: […]