Protecting his personal brand & business reputation
May 15, 2024
When Tuong and David, launched a business together in 2005, selling computing and networking products under the brand ‘Wireless 1”, Due to their lack of understanding about trade marks, they didn’t prioritise the importance of trademarking their brand at the beginning.
They figured that owning the company name WIRELESS 1 PTY LTD was enough and that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) would surely not approve another similar business name to their company name and/or trading name to operate in Australia.
Over the years, Wireless 1 grew, and its business expanded from being a physical store to an online e-commerce site, which quickly became well-known for wireless and networking solutions.
In 2018, their business advisor reviewed their assets and found out that they did not own a trade mark for their business. He immediately insisted that they must apply for a trade mark as he knew just how vulnerable their business was without it.
The two partners didn’t think much of it at the time, but their business advisor was insistent, so they went ahead and registered the brand as a trade mark in Australia anyway without really knowing what protection it would afford them.
Their application was successful, and they soon owned the trade mark registration rights for the brand “Wireless 1”. They received the trade mark certificate, which they filed away alongside other company paperwork and thought no more of it.
Fast forward to 2024, David & Tuong found the true power of a trade mark registration.
Tuong and David’s clients started ringing his company to complain about not receiving products they had paid for. To their dismay, they discovered that a scam company had set up a fraudulent ‘Wireless 1’ website and was trading on their name. It was an exact duplicate of their site! It was using their site’s popularity and success to lure in targets, then rob them of their money while Tuong and David’s business took the blame.
If they could not shut the fake site down, it would continue to harm their customers, and it would be only a matter of time before Wireless 1 would lose its good reputation, credibility, and income, which may lead them to close their business if they could not shut down the fake website.
David and Tuong took action. They contacted the police fraud squad, who first asked for proof of ownership of the brand name Wireless 1. Truong retrieved the certificate and presented it, and with that, the police could take action to have the copycat site shut down. Without it, the police said they would have been powerless to assist them.
With police backing, the business owners contacted Google, who also asked for their trade mark registration number, and said that they could not have taken action without it, as they would have no way of knowing who was the real owner of Wireless 1.
Since they did have their trademark registration for Wireless 1, Google immediately shut down the fake site, allowing Tuong and David to stop further damage to their brand and resume business straight away.
Today, David and Tuong are running Wireless 1 as strongly as ever, very relieved that they had registered their business as a trademark and are secure in the knowledge that they legally own their brand name and can fend off any future copycat attacks on their business. It is hard enough to operate and run a business, but to have such a disruption to their business would have been disastrous for their business’s survival.
In today’s digital age, with consumers heavily dependent on the internet, this holds particular significance as it’s easy to copy anyone online. Tuong and David believe that every business owner needs to know their story of Wireless 1, and recommend that all business owners own a trade mark registration for their business.
Given the devastation that the fake site could have done to their business, the inexpensive price of a ten-year trademark registration should be an automatic action that any new business owner should get without hesitation.
About Wireless 1
Wireless 1 is Australia’s No. 1 Online Computer Store that stocks the latest laptops, gaming peripherals, audio accessories, smart devices, and largest range of enterprise networking at competitive prices. The Wireless 1 product range is sourced from local suppliers in Australia and are made to high A-grade Australian quality standards at the lowest competitive pricing.