trademark search takes 5 minutes. i skipped it. two weeks of brand work gone.

i named my product something i loved. built the brand around it. printed cards. shipped the landing page. told everyone.

a month in, a company in a different sector had already filed the trademark on that exact word. their .com. their case.

i had to kill it. two weeks of brand work gone. all the copy, the deck, the emails to allies, all renamed overnight.

the trademark search that would have caught this took 5 minutes. i just never did it.

just ship is great advice for the product. it is terrible advice for the brand name.

what i learned.

trademark search before you print a single thing. before you buy the .com. before you tell anyone.

.com available does not mean the name is available. those are different databases.

the rebrand hurt because i had gotten attached. the longer you wait the worse it gets.

us and eu class search. domain search. founder conversation search. all before you commit.

curious. whats the fastest thing you skipped early that cost you the most later?