Back to Trademark ownership

Right now I plan to operate as a sole-proprietor; will trademarking a name with a sole proprietorship be advisable, or should I look toward incorporation first?

Founder & Trademark Attorney

You can file the trademark as a sole proprietor now and transfer it to a company later. There is no requirement to incorporate before registering a trademark, and waiting until the company is set up may delay the priority date unnecessarily.

The one consideration is that once you incorporate, a formal trademark assignment from you as an individual to the company will be needed. If you expect to incorporate soon, weigh the cost of that additional step against the benefit of securing the priority date immediately. In most cases, filing now is the right call.

Related questions

Liability of parody trademarks: the case of Jack Daniel's vs Bad Spaniels

Satirical adaptations of well-known brands have become a common thing and profitable market for many lesser-known companies. Besides being an effective mean to attract more customers, parody products can also be a good defence against trademark lawsuits, as in many cases, brand owners have limited options to enforce their rights against satirical adaptations.

From Kimono, through #KimOhNo, to Skims: A branding nightmare for Kim Kardashian

#KimOhNo became a symbol of the backlash to Kim Kardashian’s attempt to register a trademark for her new line of shape wear, Kimono.

Facebook's transformation into Meta(verse): A Trademark Perspective

It has been some time since Meta (former Facebook) has announced its change of the business name [1] and also much wider transition of its activities into metaverse. Since then, much has been written about that but let us allow some additional thoughts on “Why Meta?” and what does it mean from the trademark perspective.