According to Brand Finance's 2023 Global 500 Brand Value Ranking, the collective value of the top 10 global brands is over $1.5 trillion. The process of valuing a brand is often more art than science, but the general purpose is to provide a present value to the reputation and goodwill of a company or product line. Thus, a new or unknown brand has little to no value regardless of the value or profitability of the brand's company. In other words, a brand is similar to a muscle. The more you exercise it the stronger it gets - or, in this case, more valuable. 

Yet it is important not to confuse your brand with a trademark. A trademark is what legally protects your brand. If your brand is protected by an enforceable trademark, or collection of marks, then you can prevent others from using your brand and profit from your company's goodwill and reputation. And having the ability to protect your brand through enforceable trademarks, in turn, further increases your brand's value. But the important distinction is that merely having and using a brand does not mean it is a legally protected trademark.  

Trademark rights are obtained through use in commerce, and the best way to protect your rights is by obtaining a federal trademark registration. You can use and build your brand without a trademark registration, but by doing so you are putting the value of your brand at risk. For example, a local Denver-based coffee shop recently had to start a GoFundMe page to help protect its brand when it discovered another coffee shop - on the opposite end of the country - had already trademarked the name. The Denver-based shop had been using its brand for longer and had just finalized a deal to start selling its coffee nationwide through a national grocery store chain. But because the other coffee shop had already obtained a trademark registration, the Denver-based shop's only choices were: (1) pay a licensing fee to trademark owner, (2) pay significant legal fees to try to cancel the trademark registration, or (3) start over with a new brand. Obviously, not a position any aspiring company wants to be in after being offered the opportunity to start selling its product nationwide. 

Therefore, regardless of the current size of your business or reputation of your brand, its always important to keep asking the question - what is the value of my brand and then making sure you are properly protecting the value of that brand through proper trademark registrations and protecting your rights as a trademark owner.