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Thanks! I also love that book, as it's full of practical advice. I really recommend reading Contagious if you haven't because it really made me realise how important all the offline stuff is for a tech startup :)

Thanks for your reply. In answer to some of your questions - no, this letter is not from a lawyer, it's from the company's chairman. Their trademark was registered in 2010 and I can not confirm if they have the resources for an infringement suit, although I do know that they have not actually launched their product as yet.

I appreciate that the information is a bit limited but my intention is not to publicly name and shame so I have tried not to divulge too many specific details. I can say though, that what we share in common is the word 'owl' in our names, we are both building apps for audio content (in their case audiobooks) and in our case radio programmes / podcasts. Our owl logos also look very distinctly different.

The company who is pursuing us, from their letter, seem to feel that we should rebrand and I am wondering if they really have any grounds or are just being a bit pushy. As you mentioned there are several trademarks for 'AMD' in the US and I've found there are also several trademarks that include the word 'owl'. Of course if we had unknowingly named and branded our company exactly the same name as another registered trademark then we would be seriously considering a change. I am not convinced if it is warranted in this case though.

I see you have experience of the 'picking your battles' thing and that is exactly what we need to do. This has been very useful and given me valuable perspective. I'll research as necessary and definitely post back here as to how we proceeded.

Yes, they do have registered trademarks. Do you think we should rebrand even if we both have different names (with only thw 'owl' part in common), different branding (colour, design etc) and a completely different owl mascot / logo?

For us wisdom is a positive connotation and also due to the owl's hearing range: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl#Hearing

But, that's probably a bit off topic - our name and the mentioned company's name has the word 'owl' in common, in our case alongside the word 'super' in their case alongside other word(s) so I am investigating how much, if at all, there are any breach of trademark grounds here.

Thanks - you make good points here. Weighing up the importance of our name / brand is definitely worth thinking about. Unlike the company approaching us, luckily we haven't spent all our efforts on branding, registering trademarks etc!.... since we believe in working in a lean, agile and speedy way up until launch (having learnt from previous failures!) we are open to change things when necessary. We need to establish how much of a case there is here, as you've mentioned.

Thanks, Milly. I think the tricky bit would be how to establish if our logo / name is close enough to theirs to breach their trademarks. I wonder if there are any guidelines on this or if it is based on opinions / review?

At this stage I am looking for general advice, as you mentioned and the replies posted here, including yours, are useful.

Hi, You'll find all the details on the meetup page: http://www.meetup.com/Mavericks-Breakfast/

In general around 8 people meet up for breakfast and after a brief intro each person can put forward a specific problem / dilema they would like to round table with the rest of the group.

The idea is that all the variety of experiences and backgrounds of the group can help solve problems quickly or think about them in a different way.

No particular skills are required but everyone attending has to have started or be knee deep in working on a business / startup.

We meet in a coffee shop in central London (close to Farringdon).

Hope this helps... it'll be great to see you there.

A

Thanks Zeeshan - I've e-mailed you.

Thanks for this link - it's super useful :)

Really good examples - I agree there's more we can do, in terms of content, on our FB page.

We can give samples of playlists to spark conversation and also as a taster of what to expect on Super Owl. Our editorial team put together the playlists so it's going to be a balancing act of how much we want to give away for free as the Super Owl service will be available for a small monthly subscription when we launch.

We've been quite active on our blog, writing our own articles so it sounds like more of this type of thing can also be done on our FB page.

Interesting - so you're saying that FB targeted ads are effective.... I have no experience of running any FB ads,so it may be worth investigating - thanks!

Yes, we have and you're right it's a really good start :)

"We pick the best content and get it to you" - that's right! We have an editorial team for quality filtering and we're starting with content that would appeal to a certain type of person rather than categories or genres. In the same way that TED Talks may appeal to a certain type of person rather than someone who is looking for content on a niche category. Later, when we have more resources we'll look in to categories and if they may be of use.

I worked on another startup in the same space and one of the main reasons that we stopped was because analytics showed that our users liked having good things to listen to rather than personalising, browsing by category or by mood. Creating a trusted channel and things that make listening easy (as in when you're rushing out in the morning to work) is the focus for now.

I'm going to have to now go and make stuff!... a tiny team means lots of work and less time on HN ;)

Perhaps the Super Owl will grow up to be as smart as this owl too :)

Thanks for the feedback :)

We will keep iterating it and making it simpler and clearer. This is a first pass to explaining what Super Owl is. It is an iPhone app with a service attached to it (the editorial service) and I think it is important to say this because we are not selling an app in isolation.

Not really sure about what you mean when you say: "audio programmes from independent DIY audio makers" sounds like sophisticated something.

Did you find this sentence confusing or do you think it sounds unnecessarily sophisticated? The intention is to give potential listeners an understanding that the content comes from independent makers as well as larger more well known broadcasters.

cheers :)

ta :)

thanks :)

Yes, I do know what you mean. We have actually ummed and ahhed about this quite a lot. We don't like the word podcasts as they can mean video or audio and also it seems to scare some people away. Audio programme is perhaps a bit dry... just audio is too vague. Broadcast? Radio?

Audio story is the only expression that defined the kind of content we will feature - it always has a story and it's audio!...

However, I am open to a good alternative... I haven't managed to come up with one as yet.

I've been wondering the same thing at a very similar price point too. I am thinking about a monthly subscription at either £3.99 or £4.99.

Some quick user feedback over the last 2 weeks, where I showed people a slide about what the service is and then asked them how much they would pay revealed that a subscription of £5 would be too much. Most people who said they would pay replied with 'I would definitely pay £2 of £3 for that'.

Obviously this is only relevant for my startup but I wanted to ask a few people how much they would pay without giving them options.

Now that I have a ballpark figure I'll ask different people how much they would pay, but this time give them options - ie, the £3.99 vs £4 thing.

oooh, nice I like that tip.

We've gone with this for now: http://www.superowl.me/

We may swap out 'spoken word' for podcasts.

Thanks for the help.

The dictionary definition format combined with a tag line is confusing indeed. I've dropped the tag line and it looks clearer on the page.

Brilliant tip, thanks. I am based in the UK and am using it now.

BTW, we have also decided to change the name to Super Owl. Too many people associated a negative tone with the word 'smug' - we were trying to be cheeky but perhaps it was a bit too cheeky! :)

Oops, I forgot to ask where are you based? We are in the UK and I though it may be relevant to your non-native comment. We definitely want something which is universally appealing and understood.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I like the simpler re-structured sentence you've suggested.

I'm not offended about the non-native comment - I presume you are trying to say that some of the copy sounds like it's been written by someone who speaks english as a second language? This is interesting because it has been worked on by 3 native english speakers (one of them is also an english lit. graduate!). Maybe the problem is actually the fact that three people are working on this copy and another problem being that we are all very close to the product.

We would like to say more about the type of content - it's not music, so the fact that you think it is, is not good. It's all spoken word programmes (audio documentaries, interviews, discussions, stories etc.). Does 'spoken word programmes' sound like a good way to explain this type of content?

I also agree about the periodical comment. The fact that we will be pushing you content on a periodical basis is more of a detail for later explanation. Maybe the word 'regular' sounds better than 'periodical'.

Thanks for feedback. I just realised I should have posted this to Ask HN - oops, I'll do that today.

I see what you're saying. The content is only spoken word (no music) so perhaps that should be stated explicitly. I haven't been sure about using the word podcast because it is off putting for some people and it doesn't necessarily mean audio (podcasts can be video too).

Maybe I should do a quick on the ground survey to see what term I should use - podcast, audio programme, spoken word programmes....