Heaps of people get confused about these three different methods of naming your Amazon enterprise. So, I’m here to – hopefully – shine a torch through the fog and clear it up for you!
It’s best to think of your brand name, business name and trademark as offering three levels of legal protection.
Your brand name is level one and doesn’t offer any legal protection for your business. You simply decide what you’re going to call your collection of products for sale on Amazon.
If I sold toys for babies, I might want my brand to be called: Stacey’s Baby Toy Emporium. First I’ll make sure that no one else has that name, then I’ll go ahead and get a little logo designed and I’m done!
Naming your brand doesn’t involve another organisation other than Amazon and offers no legal protection for your business.
Level two is your business name, which offers some protection as you’re creating a legal entity. It requires you to register the name of your business with the appropriate authority – here in Australia it’d be ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission).
Your business name doesn’t have to be the same as your brand name – although it’s usually a good idea – and you can register as many as you like.
There is a fee to register your business with ASIC. At the time of writing, it’s $37 for one year or $87 for three years.
Although registering your business name is important, it doesn’t offer you protection if someone starts muscling in on your patch and selling your products. For that, you need level three and to register your trademark.
By having a trademark, you can better protect your brand name and most importantly, you’ll be able to register for Amazon’s Brand Registry.
If you’re serious about building your brand on Amazon, I 100% recommend becoming brand registered. It gives you greater control over how your brand and products are listed, gives you access to useful tools, and helps stop sellers hijacking your listings.
Here in Australia, they’ve made it super easy to get a trademark – you can do it all through IP Australia and the cost starts from $250.
One way to think about the brand name, business name and trademark, is to think about them as three levels of protection – and if you’re in this for the long haul, then I recommend you get all three.
I hope this clears it up a little, guys and gals!
Stacey xx