Ask HN: Trademarking your Startup

[rehashed]

I am in the final throws of launching my startup. A name has been chosen (which I have grown quite attached to), and now its time to address trademarking. Its a bootstrapped startup, using what time and money I can save from my day job, and $18k+ with single-class global registration is so far out of my league I was wondering:

1) Is a trademark important in this day and age? I already hold the domain - isn't that enough?

2) If i DONT have the trademark, could someone else register it and stop me trading under that name?

3) As a generic web application, what classes and communities should I be targeting to get good coverage for the least expense?

4) What sort of protection do other HN startups tend to go for when launching their products?

[LinaLauneBaer]

I only know German law and I am not a lawyer - but a friend of mine is one and we often discuss those topics.

1) Important: Depends. If you have unfriendly competitors they may have a look at the trademark registration database, see that you have not registered a trademark and do so themselves. A domain is not enough.

2) Yes. Usually every company with +5 people working for the company has (easily) the resources to do that.

3) -

4) We have not registered any trademarks but we are in an early stage. I am pretty sure that we will register something shortly after a successful public launch.

[fidanov]

Trademark is an expense. You are startup and you need to make an expense only if it brings something to you.

You are launching so right now your mark is worth nothing, so $18K or any other amount is just not worth it.

Launch, if you are successful and I mean successful in terms of revenue and profits (not user base) then you can start thinking of the trademark.