Brand Protection

Why a Free Discovery Call Is the Smartest First Step for Your Brand

IP Wealth · Southport QLD · Updated 21 September 2026 · 6 minute read

Whether you are about to launch a brand new business or you have been trading for years without ever getting around to it, there is one conversation worth having before anything else: a free discovery call about protecting your name. It costs nothing, it takes about twenty minutes, and it usually saves people a great deal more than that.

Every week we speak with two very different kinds of business owner. One is standing at the very start, with a name, a logo concept and a launch date, trying to work out what actually needs to happen before they go public. The other has been trading successfully for years, sometimes a decade or more, and has simply never registered their trade mark, often because nobody ever told them it was urgent, or because it always felt like something to get to later. Both conversations end up in the same place: a free discovery call, and a much clearer picture of where they stand.

If you are starting a brand

Launching something new is exciting, and it is easy to let the fun parts, the logo, the website, the packaging, take priority over the unglamorous step of checking your name is actually free to use. But that check is the one that protects everything else you are about to spend money building.

What we cover on the call

• Whether your proposed name and logo are likely to clear the Australian Trade Marks Register, based on a preliminary search.
• Which classes of goods and services you should be protecting, so your registration actually covers what your business does.
• A realistic idea of timeframes and costs, so there are no surprises later.
• What happens if you skip this step and launch anyway.

If you are already trading and exposed

If your business already has customers, a reputation and a name people recognise, but no trade mark registration behind it, you are carrying more risk than you might realise. Without registration, there is very little standing between your brand and a copycat, a similarly named new entrant, or in the worst cases, someone else registering your own name before you do.

What the call looks like for an established business

• A quick audit of what you are currently using, your name, logo, taglines and any sub-brands, against the Australian register.
• An honest answer on how exposed you currently are, and to what.
• A prioritised plan for what to register first if there is more than one asset worth protecting.
• No pressure and no obligation, if the answer is that you are already in reasonable shape, we will tell you that too.

Why a discovery call, and why free

We would rather have an honest, no-cost conversation up front than have someone hold off on protecting their brand because they are not sure what it will cost or whether it is even necessary yet. A discovery call is not a sales pitch dressed up as advice, it is a genuine look at your situation so you can make an informed decision, whether that decision is to proceed with us, to do it yourself, or to wait.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Every brand and business is different, please speak with a qualified trade mark attorney about your own circumstances before making decisions about your intellectual property.