As Chief Marketing Officer at Fennemore, I spend a great deal of time thinking about brands. Not just how they look or sound, but how they accumulate value over time. And sitting alongside our attorneys, I’ve picked up a few things about what it actually means to protect that value. (Not legal advice—just lessons learned from being in the room.)
May is Small Business Month, a time to recognize Phoenix-area businesses building momentum, and to think about what it takes to sustain that growth. For many small and midsized businesses, a brand starts as a name, a logo, or a founder’s vision. As the business grows, it becomes something much more powerful: recognition, trust, reputation, and market momentum. It supports sales, recruiting, partnerships, and long-term business value.
Yet some companies protect that asset less deliberately than they protect office equipment or software licenses.
As a mentor to business owners, one assumption I hear more often than you might expect is that adding a ™ to a logo means the brand is “covered.” What I have learned from working closely with our intellectual property attorneys is that it is not that simple. TM for goods, and SM for services, can signal that a business is claiming a trademark, but those symbols alone do not create federal rights. They do not substitute for federal registration of the mark, and they do not by themselves provide broad protection.
That distinction matters because many business owners assume they have already done enough. They may have formed an LLC, registered a trade name, secured a web domain, and established a strong local reputation. Those are all important steps. But they are not the same as federal trademark registration.
Three considerations for growing businesses
As you think about growth this year, here are a few practical questions worth asking, not as legal advice, but as patterns I’ve observed working closely with attorneys, shared from a non-attorney perspective for the benefit of small business owners:
1. Is your brand protected beyond your current market?
In working alongside intellectual property attorneys, I have learned that the use of a name or logo in the marketplace can create common-law rights. A business that has built real brand recognition here may have meaningful rights tied to that use. But those rights are generally limited by geography and market presence.
For a company serving clients across state lines, selling nationally online, or preparing for expansion, this can create a gap between the brand’s value and the scope of its protection. From a marketing standpoint, that gap should get leadership’s attention.
2. Are you treating your brand as a long-term asset?
A business that does not protect its brand may discover that a similar trademark is already registered in another market. It may run into problems as it expands geographically. It may find itself in a dispute just as it is gaining traction. In the worst cases, it may need to rebrand after years of investment.
From where I sit, that’s not just a legal headache, it’s a full business reset. It can mean new signage, new materials, a new website, revised messaging, search engine optimization (SEO) disruption, and the difficult task of bringing your target audience along.
3. Are you building on a foundation that can scale with you?
Federal trademark registration can provide broader protection, clearer ownership, and stronger positioning as your business grows.
That’s why federal registration matters so much. One of our intellectual property attorneys said something to me once that stuck: using a TM means you are claiming the mark, but registration strengthens the framework around it. It permits use of the ® symbol, which carries a very different meaning from TM or SM. That is an important distinction for any business leader who sees brand as a strategic asset rather than a decorative one.
Small Business Month is a good reminder that growth is not just about gaining momentum; it is about protecting what you are building along the way.
Lindsay Moellenberndt is Chief Marketing Officer at Fennemore, where she leads strategic initiatives that build Fennemore’s brand for sustained growth while celebrating the firm’s unique qualities. Under her leadership, Fennemore has expanded from six offices to 23, pioneered a flexible work platform, strengthened its internal culture, and achieved top-tier revenue growth among Am Law 200 firms. She can be reached at lmoellenberndt@fennemorelaw.com. Her photo is courtesy of Fennemore.
