Why is it important to think a few steps ahead and ensure your exclusivity rights on certain words or graphics?

When it comes to your brand, a registered trademark is the quickest and most effective way to claim your rights. Trademarks act as a tool to easily enforce your exclusive rights on certain names. It's much easier to take down copycats if you have your trademark, and cheaper than to realize later when another company has the protection. 

In this episode Jan addresses:

• What is a trademark?
• Which brands are registrable?
• What benefits can trademark registration have?
• Why is trademark important for startups?

Trama provides end-to-end brand protection and is on a mission to make trademark registration standard when launching a business. You can verify your trademark for FREE on the Trama website here: https://tramatm.com/en 

So you've got your startup idea off the ground and have realised you want to work with service providers outside of your home country. But what are the red flags to watch out for in contracts with these businesses? 

Annabel spoke to Matej Ftacnik, CEO of Vacuumlabs. A partner of Sparring, Vacuumlabs provide digital design and engineering support particularly to companies in the fintech and blockchain industries. They discuss how you can build trust with new service providers, overcoming cultural barriers and what startups should invest in when growing with global businesses. 

They also highlight which contracts these nuances might appear, such as Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Master Service Agreements (MSAs). 




Savvy by Sparring is a show where we reveal the stories founders, investors and other startup ecosystem players face when they do not consider legal questions at an early stage. Get your startup off the ground with business inspiration, meshed with legalities, including how startups incorporated, protected their works and raised funds in a (legally) smart way. 

You can find Sparring's Startup Playbook which supports the show here: https://playbook.sparring.io/

How well do you know your customers? Do you only know how many people visit your website, or do you truly understand their behaviour and how it powers your business? In this episode Annabel discusses the competitive advantages of data tracking and data protection with Daniar Rusnak, Co-Founder of DataCop, a growth hacking agency for digital companies. They addressed: 

• How startups can started with data tracking
• Data protection basics all founders should know
• Gatekeeping and how companies will track users  in light of industry changes, such as iOS 14.5 and the end of the third party cookie in Chrome by 2022. 

They also highlight what is personal data, why you might need a record of processing operations and what to include and legal bases for processing data under GDPR.  

Savvy by Sparring is a show where we reveal the stories founders, investors and other startup ecosystem players face when they do not consider legal questions at an early stage. Get your startup off the ground with business inspiration, meshed with legalities, including how startups incorporated, protected their works and raised funds in a (legally) smart way. 

You can find Sparring's Startup Playbook which supports the show here: https://playbook.sparring.io/