Clearco partners with businesses that empower ecommerce brands, and brand protection is an important part of this goal. Toronto-based startup Haloo helps ecommerce businesses prepare for the trademark process, with instant, comprehensive, trademark searches powered by AI. With global trademark data spanning 195 countries and instant access to comprehensive research, Haloo makes the often intricate and time consuming trademark process easier and more accessible to ecommerce brands. The partnership means Clearco now funds vendor invoices from Haloo, so merchants can protect their brand—without sacrificing cash flow.

What are trademarks?

Trademarks are the words, phrases, symbols, or designs that distinguish your business or your brand. Trademarks demonstrate consistency and communicate a lot of information to the buyer: if you purchase a Stanley water bottle on Amazon, you expect it to look and feel the same as the one you purchased from the store. If the product is broken or unsafe, you’ll have a negative impression of the brand, even if the real Stanley had nothing to do with your experience. This is why trademarks are so important when protecting your business! 

A trademark can be a word (like “Whopper”), design (the Nike swoosh), logo (McDonald’s golden arches), or phrase (like ‘mmm, mmm, good’).  Each trademark is made up of two parts: the trademark itself, and the goods or services it's used on. In the example above, the “Stanley” trademark would protect against other companies using its name or logo on a water bottle, but would not stop other companies from using the Stanley name on unrelated goods (and in fact it did not, since Stanley bottles coexist with brands like Stanley Electric, Stanley tools and even the Stanley Cup.)

Trademarks are different from copyrights, which protect your artistic or creative works, and from patents, which protect your unique inventions. If you have trouble keeping the three terms straight, remember: Burger King filed a trademark when it used the word “whopper” to describe its burger, a copyright to protect the Whopper jingle, and a patent to protect the holding cabinet it invented to keep all those Whoppers warm. 

Why are trademarks important for brands?

Registering a trademark legally establishes ownership of the word, phrase, symbol, or design that your customers associate with the brand. Trademarks also allow this ownership to be enforced.  With a registered trademark, Amazon sellers can enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry, which gives Amazon sellers extra options for content and the ability to pull down listings that infringe on your brand. 

Outside of Amazon, registering a trademark is still essential for protecting your name or image from theft or misuse as the business grows. Trademarks are registered through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and registering them is different from registering the business’ name with your state. When you register as a corporation or an LLC, you register the business name so that it cannot be used by others in your state. A Trademark is a federal registration, which protects your brand across the entire country. 

How Haloo and Clearco simplify the trademark process

Traditional trademark registration is especially important for ecommerce brands. However, registering trademarks is a process many small or medium sized businesses struggle to afford. Recognizing these challenges–and the importance of trademarking your brand–Haloo’s AI-powered platform is designed to power through 12 hours of legal research in minutes, helping ecommerce brands prepare for the trademarking process and saving lawyers time. 

As part of its partnership with Clearco, Haloo is also creating a marketplace of vetted trademark and IP lawyers to serve the Clearco community. Participating lawyers will gain access to the Clearco community, and Clearco’s customers will be able to fund vendor invoices from Haloo just as easily as they fund other working capital needs. Lawyers agree to provide capped fees to Clearco customers, similar to Amazon’s IP Accelerator program. Clearco can fund these invoices with the same easy process customers already enjoy.