I see this question asked a lot over on the Facebook group, and it is typically asked by an up and coming nurse practitioner entrepreneur who is just getting started. But sometimes, a more seasoned nurse practitioner entrepreneur with a successful practice will ask the question as well. Therefore, I have 2 different answers to the 2 above scenarios.

Scenario 1: You are a new nurse practitioner entrepreneur, and you haven’t started your practice yet, you are in the process of getting it up and running, or you have been open just for a few months.

In the above scenario, should you trademark your practice name and/or its logo?

NO…

It is a $100 question at this point in your journey… You need to be asking yourself $10,000 questions.

Listen, spending $500-1500 on registering a trademark is an unnecessary expense and a time sink for a nurse practitioner who is just in the startup phase of opening their own practice. Why? Because you don’t even know if your practice is going to be successful or profitable enough to justify the expense of a trademark.

Why would you spend $1000 on trademarking a name for a practice that hasn’t even opened or is just in the infancy stages? Your name is not that important at this point. It doesn’t have the brand awareness that an established practice has. Therefore, it can be changed at anytime and it would barely cause an issue because it is not established yet.

Additionally, sometimes you must PIVOT during the startup phase of your practice. Sometimes the IV infusion services you are offering isn’t really taking off, but the weight loss is. So, do you want to be stuck with a name that says IV Infusion in it and you just stop offering it because it is not profitable? Sometimes during the nurse practitioner entrepreneur journey, you need to change the name of your practice. I have discussed this numerous times in the podcast and guess what? A simple name change can be the CRITICAL factor in spring boarding your practices success.

So, for the above reasons: don’t waste your money trademarking your practices name and/or logo during the startup phase. Give it a year and reassess your situation, THEN trademark it.

Scenario 2: You are a nurse practitioner entrepreneur with a successful wellness practice called Better Bodies and Wellness Weight Loss Center. You offer mostly weight loss services but also some hormone replacement therapy, peptides, and some functional medicine. You have been open 2-3 years and your practice is beginning to generate $50,000 a month in revenue. Essentially, your practice is entering into the success stage.

In this scenario, should you trademark your practices name?

You are damn right you should. Why?

Because you have a PROFITABLE business and have begun developing brand awareness and an actual name for yourself in the community. THIS is the time when you trademark your practice because you are in an upward growth trajectory and your name is VITAL to your success.

It is a NECESSARY expense at this time.

Many of you might be surprised that I haven’t even trademarked my practices names… I don’t see a point personally. It is such a generic name that it doesn’t really call for it. Plus, if someone did decide to trademark it, then I would just change the name. My hundreds of established patients wouldn’t care. They would go to the same place and receive the same care. Updating my website and the Google Listing would literally take me an hour as well. Hence, I don’t worry about it.

So, what if you are interested in trademarking your practices name? How do you go about it? It is relatively simple:

First, you need to find a service that does it. There are dozens of legal services online for trademarking a business name. Simply Google it. I used LegalZoom personally for trademarking The Elite Nurse Practitioner. It cost me $800, and the application took about an hour.

Now, this is the kicker: it can take A LONG time for the trademark to actually go through the United States Patient and Trademark office… we are talking like 6-12 months. And guess what? They can DECLINE your trademark. Yep… Then what?

Then you need to consult with a lawyer to petition their decision and the cost just shot up by another $1000-$2000.

They can decline your trademark because the name is SIMILAR in nature to another businesses name… Trademarks being declined HAPPENS and then the process becomes more expensive and time consuming (another 6-12 montha…). So as you can see: it is not worth your time during the startup phase of a business.

Many of you probably will disagree with me on this point, and that is fine. But I just wanted to give my nurse practitioner sisters and brothers a different perspective that goes against most “general business” advice because often times: that advice is expensive and unnecessary!

Thus, don’t stress about it… It is a $100 question, not a $10,000 question during the startup phase of opening a niche practice.