Home topics small-business-resources legal IP Legal IP Forget your trademark and risk losing your business David Olsen January 19, 2011 Starting a business is always an exciting and daunting time – registrations, accountants, setting up tax requirements and then the marketing, production and sales processes. But, according to Michael Beverley of trademark specialists IP Wealth, many business people forget one vital element that can quickly bring all their hard work undone. They don’t register their business name as a trademark. Gold Coast entrepreneur Peter Hill paid a heavy price for not filing a trademark when he set up a finance brokerage business and registered Just Car Loans. He lost three years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars. “I like business names that tell the market exactly what I do,” he said. “Just Car Loans said it all. But it didn’t occur to me to register a trademark. After all, I registered the company. I thought that was enough.” Peter had a simple business plan to build the business to a level where it could be sold in three years. He was on track when he received a letter from a big law firm in Melbourne. “It was a simple ‘cease and desist’ letter,” said Peter. “A well known insurance giant had registered and trademarked a similar name in the insurance field and my name was held to violate their right and cause confusion in the market.” Peter did not know enough about trademark law and he knew he