Are you part of the 50%?

Hey there,

Fall is well and truly underway, and so today we’re highly caffeinated with pumpkin-spiced drinks and ready to:  

1. 🚀 Give you one legal reminder to check off your list. 

2. 📰 Summarize a noteworthy piece of news (and why it’s relevant to you). 

3. 🎉 Update you onseveral events this month that could bring value to you and your business.

But before all of that, we wanted to share some exciting news…

After hundreds and hundreds of hours focused on finding the best ways to legally support startups and businesses of all sizes, the SuLe smart legal platform is officially live: https://hub.sule.io/ 🚀

As a business, you now have access to fundamental documents like team agreements and commercial contracts – that can traditionally cost thousands of pounds – all for a fraction of the cost.

We’ve created a legal roadmap tailored to the size and needs of each business, showing what to put in place when.

And of course, we have an expert team of lawyers standing by to guide businesses through any complex questions or situations they might encounter.

Special thanks goes out to our 300+ clients for trusting us as their legal service provider along the way. 🙏

We can’t wait to help you scale your business smarter and faster!

Oh and as a little hello present, the next 100 users will receive 30% off with the code: TOP30 🌟

1. November’s Legal Reminder:
Are you part of the 50%? 😰

Over 50% of early-stage founders haven’t protected their brand. 50%!!

It’s a painfully large number. 😰

So our question is, have you?

Because your brand is what identifies you; it's how clients and partners differentiate you from all the noise. Not to mention you invest a lot of time and money into making it stand out. But this is all worthless if you don't protect it. 🤺

Many people think that by registering your company on Companies House, your brand is protected. But this is just a legal protection of your entity, rather than your brand name itself. 

To protect your brand name, you need to register it as a trademark in your local jurisdiction. ✅

You can also protect other parts of your brand from being copied or used – such as company logos, your slogan, and even your brand colours – by trademarking them as well. 

The first thing you want to do when registering your trademark is to check the trademark registers that your new name does not infringe on existing trademarks.

Check for:

• Exact matches

• Marks which are phonetically and/or visually similar

• Class registrations.

• Check for unregistered marks and how and where they are used

Now that you’ve checked other existing trademarks, you’ll want to:

• Ensure that you use the TM and ® symbols correctly – using ® symbol incorrectly can be a criminal offence.

• Ensure the trademark is registered in the name of the company

• Apply for registration in the relevant jurisdiction

• Think carefully about class registrations and how you describe the goods and services you seek to register

• Think tactically and strategically about future products and services and how they should be branded.

Note: Remember that the best trademarks are made up words (acronyms are good) or original designs as these are not as likely to have competition. 👌

2. Noteworthy News:
The VC drop

UK startups have seen a dramatic 50% drop in VC funding in Q3 2024, securing only $2.9 billion. 📉

This is the lowest it’s been in five years. Why?

Well, the good news is that the decline is attributed to fewer mega-rounds, and it’s worthwhile to note that early-stage and breakout-stage funding have remained relatively stable.

3. Funding Opportunities 🤓

💰 Mental Health Award: Accelerating Scalable Digital Mental Health Interventions: £3-7 million of funding available per project, for a duration of up to five years, to fund research to evaluate and further develop scalable digital interventions to advance early intervention in depression, anxiety and psychosis.

Happy businessing!

– The SuLe Team