Trademarks for Public Service Providers

By David Allred

Trademarks for Public Service Providers

A 2-minute conversation with intellectual property attorney LaConya Murray discussing why public service providers should trademark their brand.  View time: under 2 minutes

David Allred, Stamp Idea Group's Strategy Director, has a conversation with intellectual property attorney LaConya Murray, discussing why public service providers should protect their brand with a trademark .

Video Transcript

David: We have just a couple of areas we work in and one of those areas is public service, those serving others. And as we were talking the other day, LaConya, you mentioned you were helping somebody - we can't name them yet because it's in process - but tell us about the importance of even a public service entity protecting their brand.

LaConya: People are shady. Can I just say that, people are shady. They can see that an organization is doing so great, and doing so good, and doing so good in the community. And then they will try to buy a domain that's very similar to that domain, and put up some branding that's very similar to it and say "Hey, this we're doing something, we're doing the same thing, support us." And then people are like, "Wait. Who? What? What's going on?" And then you start hearing horror stories about how an organization took money, and you don't want to be associated with the horror stories. You want to stand on your good name. And your reputation that you worked so hard to build. And so that's what having that trademark, especially for the public service providers. A lot of people say, "Oh, well we're a non-profit, we don't have to worry about that." But you do more than anyone else, because people you're accepting donations and different things from the community. And you don't want to ruin that reputation.