Building on a Strong Foundation

Name: Dean Gordon

Business: Real Support

Industry: ‘For sale by owner’ real estate support services

IP smart since: 2004

Dean Gordon knows that business success relies upon strong branding and building up a good reputation.

So when he started up his ‘for sale by owner’ real estate support business, Dean knew that it was imperative to protect his company name and logo - his intellectual property.

“The for sale by owner concept targets home owners who want to sell their home privately, but also want professional marketing and advertising support. We provide signage, marketing and a conveyancing service - a complete private sale solution,” Dean said.

“The main benefit of this service over traditional real estate agents is that the home owner saves thousands of dollars in commission, whilst still receiving support throughout the sale process."

With support being the main focus of his business, Dean came up with the business name 'Real Support' and slogan 'Real Support-your complete private sale solution', but wanted to check that the name was viable before he developed the business' branding any further.

"Building up a good reputation and positive branding can take years, so it's important that our corporate identity is protected," Dean said. "We didn't want to encounter any problems down the track by finding out that we'd inadvertently infringed someone else's IP."

"Our business revolves around branding and advertising and if we had to change our name after we'd started up the business it would be financially devastating."

To ensure that this didn't happen, Dean conducted searches of all the necessary databases, including the Queensland business name register, and the domain name and trade mark databases before settling on the business name, Real Support.

"It was actually quite a fast process as all of the searches could be conducted online, through their respective websites," Dean said.

"When the searches came back OK, I applied to have our business name registered with the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, and shortly after received a certificate acknowledging that Real Support was a registered business name in Queensland." Dean was aware that acquiring a business name in Queensland only gave him a trading name in that state, and no proprietary rights or protection, so he decided that trade mark protection was a sensible option. This was a decision based on looking at the big picture.

"The for sale by owner concept is a new one on the Sunshine Coast, and franchising opportunities will be a real possibility for us down the track," Dean said. "It's therefore, really important that our intellectual property is in place - right from the beginning."

So when his preliminary searches came back OK, Dean applied to have the Real Support logo, business name and slogan registered as trade marks, through IP Australia.

And his protection strategy didn't stop there. Dean then moved on to ensure that the Real Support domain name was secure and ready for business.

"Online real estate is huge now, and competition is fierce, so I wanted to secure our business name as a domain name, to make it easily accessible for users," Dean said.

"I now have the realsupport.com.au domain name secured for three years."

So with all intellectual property safeguarded, Dean now has the security to grow his business and invest in the Real Support brand, without risk of infringement or unauthorised use.