Choosing a name for your historic preservation organization is an important first step toward establishing your organization's brand image. Your brand image will influence your organization's reputation and ultimately your organization's success.

Any discussion about your organization's name and brand may raise some fundamental questions about your organization's mission and goals. For example, if you find that another organization is using the name you planned to use and has a similar mission, you should obviously consider whether your new organization is necessary. If the market is already crowded with similar preservation organizations, it may make sense to partner with or support an existing group rather than form a new organization.

If you are forming a political advocacy group dedicated to policy improvements, lobbying, and government outreach, you should definitely consider creating a distinct non-tax-deductible 501c4 organization to protect the 501c3 status of existing preservation organizations.

Your Name as a Trademark

Your organization's name is a type of trademark. A trademark, sometimes called a brand, is a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, or a combination of any of these elements. Your organization will use its name and other trademarks to establish relationships with your members, potential supporters, and your community, much the way that a company uses its trademarks to create a relationship with its customers.

Trademarks distinguish one organization's goods and services from those of another. Trademarks also convey meaning to consumers — branded goods and services come to signify a particular quality or standard. Organizations can use trademarks to legally protect the considerable goodwill and reputation that can come to be associated with their brand.

To be legally protectable, a trademark must be distinctive. In general, the more distinctive the mark, the greater the legal protection it is afforded. It is not necessary to register a trademark in order to claim protection, but it is a good idea to register your organization's primary logos and graphics. In the realm of intellectual property (IP) law, these are referred to as keymarks. Trademark registration gives your organization a legal basis for these two things:

• Ownership of the mark
• The exclusive right to use the mark nationwide

A federal trademark registration may also prevent a competing organization from adopting a similar name. The filing fee for a federal trademark application is currently $325, and registration can be done online.

Trademark Considerations

When you are naming your organization, the IRS will require you to make sure no other nonprofit organization in Wisconsin has the same name as yours. You should also engage a trademark attorney early in the process to ensure that you're addressing broader trademark issues. An attorney will help you understand the risks involved in each of your name selections. Your general counsel may be able to connect you with a trademark specialist. Most law firms provide pro bono services to nonprofit groups. The University of Wisconsin's Law School supports nonprofit pro bono projects.

You can use some free online tools to assess whether a trademark may be available for use. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office permits simple online searches of federal trademark registrations and pending trademark applications. Online search engines such as Google or Bing may help you identify organizations that are using similar marks that aren't registered with the federal trademark registration. It can be tricky to interpret the results of these searches, so it's always a good idea to consult with a qualified trademark attorney.

Before you invest a significant sum to clear a trademark name, it is a good idea to confirm that the corresponding web domain name is also available. You can search for available domain names online using a vendor that offers free searches of the WHOIS domain name database.

The Descriptiveness Dilemma

Many nonprofit organizations select a descriptive name, which describes the services offered based on the organization's mission, subject matter, or geographic location. In the IP law field, a descriptive name is known as a descriptive mark.

Before you choose a descriptive name for your organization, consider this: If there is more than one organization in your community dedicated to historic issues — such as a preservation organization and a historical society — how will someone immediately understand the difference between the two? Think about how your sponsors, volunteers, and potential partner organizations will find your organization (either through an online search or otherwise). For example, there are nearly 900 active federal trademark registrations that incorporate a variant of the word "history." More than 600 of those trademarks incorporate a variant of the words "preserve" or "preservation."

Here are some other points to consider before you pick a descriptive name for your organization:

• If you pick a descriptive name, you won't be able to prevent another organization from using an identical or near-identical mark. This is because a descriptive name is not protectable as a trademark. No single entity can claim exclusive rights to commonly used terms such as historic, alliance, preservation, league, conservancy, landmarks, or any geographic term such as your town's name. For example, the Wisconsin Preservation League could not block anyone from using the phrase "Wisconsin Preservation Alliance."
• If you use a descriptive term for your organization, you will increase the chances of an IP infringement claim. Another group may believe it has exclusive rights to the term (even if it doesn't), and that group might attempt to challenge your group's claim to the name.

In so-called crowded fields where there are many businesses with similar names, subtle differences in trademarks and goods and services are sufficient to avoid a potential trademark challenge. For example, Historic Milwaukee Inc. has been around since 1974 and is known for its tours and programs. Although the group's vision includes advocacy and working with public officials, the group's work is primarily program-based. The Milwaukee Preservation Alliance was established more recently as an issue- and project-based advocacy group. Because of the similarity in their names, both of these organizations must work to distinguish themselves in the market.

Choosing a Name with Distinction

A better approach for picking a name is to choose what is known in IP law as a suggestive mark. A suggestive mark is a distinctive term that conjures up the services of an organization but does not explicitly describe them. Many organizations are daunted by the process of selecting a distinctive name, but the benefits are well worth it.

Here are a few examples of clever and distinctive marks in the preservation field:

• BARN AGAIN!, a program by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that offers awards, workshops, and educational materials for farmers and ranchers to use historic barns as part of modern agricultural production
• Common Bond, a consulting firm that specializes in architectural history and historic preservation
• Past Forward Northwest Consulting Services, a heritage consulting business in the Pacific Northwest

Learn More

Historic Preservation Advocacy Guide

Find more how-to articles about historic preservation advocacy.