Protecting Your Brand Early – Lessons from the Gaisbock Case

In a recent webinar, Ramon Riebli, Founder and CEO of Gaisbock, and Ramin Shafai, Trademark and Design Specialist at E.Blum, shared practical insights on how startups can build and protect their trademark strategy. Using the Gaisbock case, they walked through real challenges and decisions, showing how trademarks can become a valuable business asset. Participants came away with clear, actionable advice on strengthening their brand to support growth and future expansion.

Why trademark strategy often comes too late

If you ask most startup founders what matters in the early days, the answer is predictable – product, traction, and funding. In the beginning, all resources go into developing and launching products, as well as building momentum. Trademark strategy simply does not feel urgent.

That’s a common pattern. Branding is often treated as something to refine later, even though it is actually the foundation of identity and trust for a company.

The problem is that by the time trademarks feel important, you may already be exposed. In this case, domains were registered and some trademarks were filed, but without a long-term strategy. It worked – until it didn’t.

Understanding IP – more than just trademarks

Before diving into the case, Ramin outlined a simple but important framework. Intellectual property is not one thing. It is a combination of different protections working together:

• Patents protect technical inventions
• Designs protect how a product looks
• Trademarks protect the brand identity
• Copyright protects creative works

What matters most is how these pieces interact. For example, patents and designs require novelty, meaning you cannot disclose them publicly before filing. Trademarks are more flexible, but still require careful timing and planning. This is where many startups slip. They focus on building, sharing, pitching – without realizing that disclosure can weaken or even destroy protection.

The Gaisbock journey – doing it, then fixing it

This story will sound familiar to many founders. The company secured its domain early, which turned out to be a very good decision. But trademark filings were done step by step, without a clear structure. At some point, a cease-and-desist letter arrived. That moment forced a shift from “we should probably think about this” to “we need a real strategy now.”

The company reworked its entire approach. They clarified which products mattered most, aligned trademark classes, and simplified their portfolio. One of the key changes was splitting the brand into two separate trademarks – a word mark and a logo mark.

This might sound like a technical detail, but it made a big difference. It created more flexibility in how the brand could be used and stronger options when enforcing it against others.

The small decisions that matter more than you think

One of the most practical takeaways from the webinar was surprisingly simple – secure your domain name before filing a trademark. Why? Because trademark applications are published almost immediately. There are actors who monitor these publications and register matching domains to resell them later. Recovering those domains is possible, but expensive and time-consuming.This reflects a broader idea also seen in startup guidance: your brand name and domain are not just details, they are part of your core infrastructure.

Another key step is conducting availability searches. Before committing to a name, you need to know whether you are free to use it. Skipping this step can lead to conflicts that are far more costly than doing the research upfront.

Thinking beyond today – the five-year lens

One of the most useful frameworks shared was the idea of planning trademarks with a five-year horizon.

In many countries, trademarks must be actively used within a certain period, typically five years. If you register in markets where you are not active, you risk losing those rights or being unable to enforce them.

So instead of thinking globally from day one, the advice is more grounded: focus on where you realistically plan to operate within the next few years.

In this case, Gaisbock chose to focus only on Switzerland first. The goal was to win locally, then expand with intention.

Costs, trade-offs, and reality

Trademark strategy is not free, and that is part of why it gets delayed.

The discussion gave a realistic view. Early-stage protection might require around CHF 20,000, while a broader international strategy can reach CHF 50,000 or more. And registration is only part of the story. Monitoring and enforcement also cost time and money.

Looking back, some early efforts were inefficient because they were done without expertise. The lesson is simple – if you decide to invest, do it properly.

Where startup founders often get it wrong

A recurring theme throughout the webinar was that filing a trademark is easy, but doing it right is not. Many startup founders rely on online tools, pick standard categories, and submit applications quickly. The issue is that these choices define what your trademark actually protects. If the scope is wrong, the trademark may exist on paper but be useless in practice. This aligns with a broader startup insight – execution details matter as much as big decisions. A small oversight early on can create long-term friction.

Final thoughts

What made this session valuable was not just the legal knowledge, but the combination of expert advice and lived experience. The key message is not that every startup must invest heavily in IP from day one. It is that brand protection should be treated as part of building the business, not as a separate legal task to deal with later.

Timing matters. Strategy matters. And perhaps most importantly, knowing when to bring in the right expertise can save you from fixing avoidable problems down the line.

Access the full webinar replay in the Swiss Startup Association Education Library, free for members. Not a member yet? Join the community and get access to practical sessions that help you protect your business before something goes wrong. 

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