Comment by cj
2 days ago
I agree.
I built a $10m revenue company, when we were very small I filed for a trademark in the US during the first year of operation and got rejected (but still on the supplemental registry, which doesn’t do much at all)
Another company applied and had the exact same mark accepted, but in a different industry so not competitive with us.
Honestly it has never been an issue. We have resources now to reapply and pursue the official trademark, but I just see no reason to do so.
IIRC EU trademarks operate on a first come (first applied) priority, so the mark gets granted to whoever applies first. That’s unlike the US where the mark is supposed to be granted to whoever was using the mark first, no matter when the application date is.
TLDR: I’ve spoken to multiple trademark attorneys, have applied for multiple marks, and honestly just don’t see the value in spending time or energy on it for an established company, let alone a side project.
Established company with any kind of brand recognition is definitely worth it, because of the disruption that could be caused by someone getting the trademark before you (e.g. you could be sued for using their trademark, you could lose your web domain, etc).
For a non-established company, no point. I struggle to see the point for an OSS side project, too, unless there are plans to turn it into a paid product at some point in the future.
I wrote a story about how this plays out, 10 years ago, still relevant: https://startupnews.com.au/news/the-buildkite-story/