Start Smart with Your Brand: Why Early Legal Review Is Critical

Heather Antoine
Partner, Technology & Intellectual Property

Abstract

Heather Antoine, Partner in the Technology and Intellectual Property Group at Stoel Rives LLP, underscores the importance of involving legal counsel at the earliest stages of brand development. While entrepreneurs often become emotionally attached to a chosen name, Antoine explains that skipping the legal clearance process can lead to costly rebranding and legal disputes down the line. Proactive legal review ensures that a brand is not only distinctive but also legally defensible from day one.

Antoine also highlights the increasing complexity of brand protection in today’s digital landscape. With infringement risks now spanning social media, global e-commerce platforms, and multiple jurisdictions, businesses must adopt a comprehensive and forward-looking brand protection strategy. Legal teams play a critical role in helping companies safeguard their identity across both traditional and emerging channels, reducing exposure and reinforcing market presence.

Transcript

Hi, I am Heather Antoine. I am a partner at Stoel Rives in the Sacramento office. I am in the Technology and Intellectual Property Group, and I represent clients nationwide in consumer products, health and wellness, and technology.

Why should businesses involve legal before selecting a brand?

I wish that people spent more time considering what their brand should be early on. There is a lot of emotion that goes into picking a name, and that name usually means so much to the creators and the startups of these companies, but they do not necessarily work with a lawyer right off the bat, and that is what I wish people would do.

It is so important to clear the name for use, make sure no one else is using it, make sure there is not another company out there that it is going to send you a cease and desist letter, and then now you are a year into your brand and you have to rebrand, which is much harder to do than if they just worked with a lawyer to pick the brand from the get-go.

Why is brand protection becoming more complex in today’s market?

Definitely in the digital landscape, the challenges of protecting your brand have expanded. You have to be able to enforce and protect your brand across various mediums, which never really existed if you were around the clock…maybe not never…but it did not exist if you were around the clock even 20 years. We would not have had to worry about infringements on social media, infringements on e-commerce sites that exist globally across the world. As you grow, that is something that every brand has to really start to think, pay attention to and worry about. Have they protected themselves in all of the territories that they need to protect themselves in, and then also all of the various mediums.