USPTO is a terrific resource

Who is entitled to a name?

According to trademark law the first person to bring the name to market is the owner. For this reason it is very important to carefully document exactly when you introduced your name to the world and keep careful records of your first sale(s).

With the world becoming ever smaller due to the internet, finding a unique name is more and more difficult. But lets assume you already have been doing business with an existing name for about 5 years and you are looking to expand into other markets. In your best efforts you do a google search and discover there is another business in an abutting state doing the same type of business with the same name you have been using. (Most likely you are aware of this before the google search.)

Don’t panic. trademark law is vast and very complex. You may not be infringing at all. You can begin by going to the US Trademark website and conducting a search and see who has registered your business name if you haven’t already registered it. If you find your competition in the abutting state has registered it let us say 10 years ago you certainly are not entitled to conduct business using their registered name. If you haven’t received a cease and desist letter you may at any time. The more you grow your business infringing upon a protected name the more liability you incur.

When a trademark becomes weak

Also, as a trademark holder they must protect their name or through the eyes of the courts it will become a weak mark. As their mark becomes weaker you may be able to build a case against them if you have other arguments that the mark is weak. For example, if there are other businesses that also use the name. The more businesses using the name the more dilute the mark becomes. Also, a thorough review of the trademark application (available online) may reveal other weaknesses. Trying to declare a weak mark works best for defensive use.

Alternately If you registered your name about five years ago and discover through other means the company in the other state didn’t register their name but brought the name to market before you did they are entitled to it. And other than successful intimidation or a sappy please there is no way to prevent them from continuing to use it.

In this situation it is typically mutually beneficial for both businesses to go on as usual. However when one business is anticipating expansion and will directly compete with a business with the same name something will have to give.

When things become costly

At this point you must weigh the costs. The first option would be to change your business name. When you start adding up the cost of a logo, signs, printed materials, trade show booths, etc, etc and your lost name recognition which you have been building over the years you will quickly realize this will be expensive. In addition to the cost can you be sure that you will select a new name that will be unique and not already in use?

The second option is to approach the company in the abutting state and suggest that they change their name. If they haven’t already pursued you they are not asserting their rights which may be reflective of their other business practices as well.

So far we have been assuming you have been infringing. But what if you do a search and discover that you are entitled to the name? Immediately send them a cease and desist letter. Often this will do the trick as they will realize further action will involve the expense of court and ultimate defeat. Court is the least desirable option for all parties because one party will loose and it could be you. It is important to consider what would happen if you loose your name and are required to stop using it immediately. The impact would be enormous.

Use court as a last resort

Hopefully your letter will enlighten them and they will stop using the name. If they don’t it may be beneficial from a financial standpoint to make a cash offer. Evaluate how costly it would be to go to court and in the worst case loose. And this does happen, judges have been know to make crazy rulings. Start with an offer that is reasonable to you understanding that the next step is to bring the matter before a judge.

When bringing a new name to trade it is very important to research as comprehensively as possible it’s uniqueness. Always avoid common names and consider creating an acronym or other combination of letters that do now appear in the dictionary. It is far easier to prove infringement with a distinct name.

Link to United States Patent and Trademark Office…http://www.uspto.gov/

This spacious home seems to sprawl across the landscape

This 3 car garage features a second story apartment

Southerly Exposure looking toward the Atlantic Ocean

This breakfast room offers a lovely place to enjoy your oatmeal

A remarkable morning in Maine

These photos are now uploaded to the photo gallery on the Website of Period Design Restoration. You can view them at http://www.perioddesignandrestoration.com/hillside_cottage.html

www.dayscrabmeatandlobster.com

There is a crabmeat and lobster shack located in Yarmouth, Maine and known to the locals for 70+ years as Days.

The owner of the Days Crabmeat and Lobster was surfing the web one day and came across the Ogunquit Lobster Pound’s website, she saw Freeman Advertising had created it (that’s us), and hired us to create a site of the same “flavor” for Days.  She sent us photos and her menu and we worked to make another happy client.

This site is static. A budget site. It includes Google Analytics and a bit of SEO. The site is intended to draw potential customers as they browse the web for great places to eat in Maine. It is heavily saturated with the word lobster as this is their biggest draw. Secondly, they have sold crabmeat for their entire 70 years but recently the labor to pick the crabs is hard to find. Although they wanted to have crabmeat a large part of the site they also wanted to insure customers they sold lots of Maine lobster.

As the season progress the owner intends to send us photos to ad current interest. We also started a facebook page for Days. This is a good example of a new site which provides a web presence and has plenty of room to evolve.

Newly designed website for The Ogunquit Lobster Pound

We were approached by Bill Hancock, owner of The Ogunquit Lobster Pound to create a website that reflected the restaurant and its history. This website is comprised of 5 pages. A home/introduction page, a history page, directions, leave a comment and a page for their menu. It is a very simple site designed to be cost effect, clear and informative.

The text was written to attract internet users on vacation in Ogunquit to find the site using keywords such as lobster, clams, dinner and then finding the menu. As the season progresses additional photos will be added to further entice the palette. As with any site, SEO (search engine optimization) will be ongoing.

The Ogunquit Lobster Pound has recently created a facebook page to begin Social Media marketing as well. I am sure they would love to have you as a fan, click here.

And, when you are in Ogunquit we recommend The Ogunquit Lobster Pound. The Lobsters are cooked in water from the Ogunquit River and the shells are cracked before being served. The steamed clams are also cooked in the seawater and most delicious. They have also recently added fried foods to their menu. Click here for menu.

This blog can be found at http://freemanadvertising.com/blog/?p=119

It is important to decide exactly what the site will accomplish. Will it empower the viewer to make more informed choices about your products or simply select a product and checkout?

The following is a list of the most minimal of choices.

1. Will you be selling a product or is the site informational only?
2. Will you be engaging viewers through social networking?
3. Would you like to add a forum or guest-book?
4. Would you like to make remote entries via a password protected page to update data?
5. Would you like to follow website statistics?

If you intend on selling products on your website there are many options. Perhaps the simplest to set up is Paypal or Google Checkout. These apps are embedded in your products pages and the company of choice bills you a very minimal fee for each transaction only. It is a very cost effective way to begin selling online.

The second option is to go through a company like GoDaddy or NetworkSolutions, etc., and the web-master will be provided templates which connect to a few credit card intermediaries. Each one of these intermediaries charge per transaction as well as monthly fees.

Social Networking has taken off. It is a real benefit if you enjoy being part of a seemingly overwhelming flow of information. Your site will benefit from any posts you make on corresponding Facebook or twitter pages.

Pages become dynamic when a visitor does something to make a page change or if there is a feed going into the page, such as a news feed. When the visitors view changes only by clicking links then the page is static.

To make the page more interesting for visitors you may want to add a forum or guest-book. Both of these options will be monitored and edited by the website owner or web-master. If someone submits a post not suitable you can easily edit or delete it.

Another way to make a site dynamic is to add a database entry option. For example if you have a restaurant and you would like to make changes at your convenience you can simply log-on to a page and upload your changing menu, specials, etc. without requiring the services of a web-master.

Wordpress and other blogs are great for doing all of the above. You can select your own plugins and a myriad of other gadgets and create a fully functional site with dynamic content in practically no time. And, Wordpress is an open source application meaning that people are working on it all the time to create a better experience for the visitor and administrator.

Wordpress also allows you to view the traffic information on your site. This information is very useful in understanding how to write copy for the web as you can see how the visitor arrived using which keywords for a page, blog entry, photo, etc in search engines.

I typically use Google Analytics in the websites I create which also supply a plethora of information. I cannot stress enough how important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is for a website. Web-stats give you a clear picture of who is arriving at your site, when and why.

These are a few considerations when planning a website. In my experience the site will evolve. Not matter how perfectly you plan options will arise that you may have not thought of. Technology is changing faster than most of us can learn it. I can say that getting your website online is one step in an exciting and evolving technology. Good Luck!

This rack card was created for Divine Chocolate of Cape Neddick

Rack cards have been around for a very long time for good reason. They are concise marketing tools that can be placed exactly where your customers may be. With a direct and compelling message and attractive layout you will see results. The above cards were created for Divine Chocolate of Cape Neddick. Owner, Sandra Freeman has placed the cards at many shops and hotels in her area. Other businesses encourage the placement of these cards as it gives their guests ideas to enhance their visit. Divine Chocolate has found that when people come into the chocolate shop to pick up a single box they see the card and many people have made larger orders for the holidays.

Freeman Advertising can create rack cards for you as well as take care of the printing.

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collapsing homeshow display

Additional to this units lightweight is the ease in which it can be set up or collapsed. The vertical poles are telescoping which allows almost effortless installation. The unit comes with a rugged bag which is amply suited for transportation.

This triptych was printed on 20 0z. banner material using our wide format Roland printer. The print is very durable yet rolls up into about 3 inches, times the width of the print. The design was created by myself along with the clients input. The photo in the center was taken by me at a home whose lawn is fertilized by my client. The two other photos (left and right) are stock photos supplied by my client.

We also created two table top displays with similar graphics to grab additional attention. They are printed on vinyl and applied to 3/16″ pvc. The mounting stand holds them plumb.

Table top graphic 1

These small graphics measure 9 x 12 inches and are easily transported. My client intends to use them as needed on her table which will include other significant props.

Tabletop graphic 2

This was an exciting project to work on. From start to completion this display took about two weeks. Typically we start with some rough sketches and things evolve into our clients vision and as in this case exceed it. Our client was very enthusiastic and very excited to see the finished product.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This blog entry can be found at http://freemanadvertising.com/blog/?p=58

Client supplied sketch

The New School is a private school in Kennebunk, Maine. The parents of one of it’s students decided it is time for the old sign at the school to be replaced. They came to me and asked for help with putting together a design concept that they could present to the board of directors and upon approval donate a new sign to the school. As we discussed the project it became apparent that the existing logo was due for modification.

Nancy, the mom of the proud student is a very creative. She presented me with some wonderful colored pencil sketches of her ideas for a new logo. But this is where the problem begins.

The school’s existing logo had been created about 10  years ago by someone who was still affiliated with the school. Over time the electronic file had been lost. And discussion ensued about the original logo versus the logo that was currently being used. So Nancy created a concept for a logo make over for the schools consideration.

The original logo

When Nancy’s proposal was presented it was agreed that the logo should be re created.  Of course in situations comprised of more than one person everyone is entitled to contribute. Initially it was challenging and I stayed on the sideline. Eventually, the dust settled and we had a direction.

The consensus was to keep all of the logo elements intact but modify them in a way that pleased everyone and that could be used electronically and look good in black and white. Nancy went back to the drawing board and produced several more sketches based on the input. She tried to incorporate some new ideas of the original logo creator as well.

Next, I scanned one of the images and it was decided the final image would be saved as a raster file. This type of file is not ideal for a logo but because of the complexity of the drawing it seemed practical. Working with large images I really wanted the final design to be vector and kept my fingers crossed.

Nancy is a very capable artist as can be seen from the drawing below. She has no experience in computer graphics and was intrigued by the process.

Initial Logo rework concept drawing created with color pencil by the client

As she sought approval from the board and higher ups at The New School the logo began to evolve and became simpler as a result of her modifications. She presented me with the line drawing at the top of this page. Realizing this would be very easy to create a vector image I scanned it, imported to Adobe Illustrator and used the live trace option. It worked perfectly, tracing all around the lines and creating vector paths almost without flaw. After a few edits I had an image that Nancy and I could select fill colors and or gradients until she was happy with the results.

Using Adobe Illustrator we collaborated. We sat together in my studio and Nancy made suggestions and I tried to translate them into vector solutions. Much of the beauty of her color pencil was lost but we gained an image that was vector and easily scalable for all situations including billboards (which, bye the way, are not allowed in our State of Maine).

4 color vector image created in Adobe Illustrator

When I was working on the original line drawing scan, converting the raster image in Illustrator to paths the image appeared in two colors, black and white. I thought the black and white image had a strong impact. I had saved a copy and I showed it to Nancy as we worked on the color design. We both took pause and instinctively agreed that it had potential.

Infact, we thought the image was so strong Nancy decided to use it as a primary logo concept which she presented at the next meeting. The two color logo is very versatile. If it is a strong and engaging image it can be much more economical to reproduce, especially in items that would be screen printed, like t-shirts.

Nancy has presented the 2 color concept as well as the 4 color to the board and both have been enthusiastically accepted. The 2 color will be used primarily and the 4 color for special occasions. She said there was much discussion and excitement on how it could be used for bumper stickers, posters and t-shirts.

The final logo is 2 color, here beige and green

This was a fun job, working with a creative client always pushes me a bit into unknown territory. I need to bend a bit and be willing to reach into areas beyond my comfort zone to help realize their vision. At the beginning we were looking for a 4 color solution but with the help of the Live Trace option in Adobe Illustrator had the good fortune of finding something much simpler and what we think has more mind share potential than we had hoped for.

kuler.adobe.com

kuler at adobe

There are many blogs to choose from and some may be included in your hosting package. My hosting package did not include a blog but did include a mysql database. By following the Wordpress directions it is not difficult to set up a blog of your own. You only need a database and host.

There are many reasons to have a blog. For me, I will be able to post recent projects, present and share ideas and drive traffic to my site. I have another business and have been blogging on it for about a year. Though google analytics it is easy to see the benefits of a blog. You can find my other blog at http://www.freemansign.com/blog1

Web crawlers give precedence to current postings and that is pretty much what a blog is. For example if I would like to come up near the top on a search query in google I only need to post an entry using the keywords I would like to rank high with.

It is necessary to keep things honest and not try to trick webcrawlers as search engines will black list you if you falsely represent yourself.