Epic - Company Name

[brianelley]

Hello, I am starting a new company and keen to have the name Epic Ltd. We are producing an app where a group of people can come together to create amazing videos.

I am concerned about the company Epic Games (epicgames.com). Although the category is different, since, it's a huge company I am nervous that they will complain about the name.

Is my concern real? Or can I just proceed with this name?

Help advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr D]

If it's not already in use you can create a limited company with a particular name.

Using the name is another matter. Is that games company the only one using epic?

You can search to see who has trademarked particular name - sometimes you only find out someone is threatened when they tell you themselves.

 

[fisicx]

You can register the company. They can’t stop you doing that. But if there is a whiff of anything related to games or gaming in your videos they will no doubt get lawyered up.

Why do you even need a limited company?

 

[AllUpHere]

I think epic is also a record label (owned by Sony), so you have some very well funded opponents if you happen to stray into their territory.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Much simpler to change it now and come up with something different before you start, rather than wait for the highly likely event you get forced to change it after you’ve established a brand, printed materials, made a website etc

 

[Mark T Jones]

Companies House won’t allow the name. Which in light of the above, is a good thing.

Plus, any ‘property’ around the name will come at a premium

In 95% of cases, the only person who actually cares about the business name is it’s owner. If you need to be limited, set up a generic shellco and use trading styles.

 

[brianelley]

Thanks so much for the advice. I am going to explore further as it's a different category and also their company name itself is not consumer-focused.

If not I would go with a new name. Thanks again.

 

[fisicx]

Chose a different name

https://epic-pictures.com/

 

[brianelley]

Hmm... ok.

It's so hard to find a good name!

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Hmm... ok.

It's so hard to find a good name!

Its not. It also doesn't matter.

Call your company anything you want - the hard part is marketing it.

 

[Mr D]

Hmm... ok.

It's so hard to find a good name!

So make one.

Find a name, use it, make it good.

 

[fisicx]

It's so hard to find a good name!

Brian Alley Ltd.

Easy.

The company name can be anything you want. Look at just about any app and there is no correlation between the app name and the developers.

 

[brianelley]

Hahaha good one.

I know marketing and user acquisition is key.

I am searching for a good name that people can connect, own it and become ambassadors of it.

I will find a good one, just need time.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Honestly, none of that connecting and ambassador garbage matters.

You can call your company Defecate LTD if you want, and as long as you are good at the important stuff then you will make the money.

Conversely, you can have the most engaging, innovative and wonderful name on the planet, but if you don't do the important stuff well then no one will know.

 

[NickGrogan]

a good name that people can connect, own it and become ambassadors of it.

No such thing, as has been said before, no-one cares about the name, at all, ever.

Some people love Uber, and want to Uberise their industry, company etc.

But the word Uber has been around forever, and when I started in business was associated with Nietzsche. No one wanted to make their business more like Nietzsche!

If you're expecting the name to do all the work, you're going to be disappointed.

 

[brianelley]

Actually really sorry to mislead you all. The main thing that I am concerned about is not the company name but the app name. The app name is what my users will use and share it with their community. So, it should be easy to say and share.

I agree the company name can be anything but the app name should be something that users would like to be part of.

 

[NickGrogan]

Whether is the app name, company name, etc, none of it is going to make any difference.

If the app is great, people might share it, regardless of the name, logo, colour scheme, etc, etc.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Even more irrelevant on an app.

If the app is not good, or it isn't featured in wired, or it isn't added to a featured list in the iTunes store, it will get lost among the millions and millions of other apps with amazing names which no one ever downloads or has heard of.

 

[brianelley]

Got it. Thanks guys.

 

[fisicx]

I am searching for a good name that people can connect, own it and become ambassadors of it.

It’s a video app. One of many hundreds. Call it anything you like, nobody cares.

What you will need is oodles of cash.

 

[Socio South West]

Try this tool... https://randomwordgenerator.com/fake-word.php

 

[The Byre]

The company name does not matter. The trading name does matter. Registering your trademark costs £170 and is done here - https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmtext

 

[paulears]

Anglia TV sold their big studio to Epic TV in Norwich - Epic is quite a common part of business names according to Companies House.

 

[brianelley]

Thanks for the valuable feedback guys.

I've added another word to it and registered it. Domain is epic.show

So, that's done.

 

[The Byre]

That does not protect it one little bit.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

My suggestion is ZOOLPUCK you can use that for free

 

[brianelley]

Like everyone said, name matters less so, I want to move on and build a product that users love to use. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[AllUpHere]

Don't use a .show domain, that's just engineering a disadvantage into the business right at the start.

 

[brianelley]

Why do you say, that's a disadvantage into the business?

 

[AllUpHere]

Why do you say, that's a disadvantage into the business?

How many .show sites do you visit? How many people do you think even know that something ending in .show is a valid domain name?

 

[brianelley]

Oh, I understand what you are saying now. Thanks for explaining it.

My user's journey would be via the app, so, as long as the app is providing a valuable service then users will use it. If it's not providing a valuable service then the app and the company will die.

I am targeting very niche and modern users and I know them very well that they wouldn't mind this domain.

 

[The Byre]

So an experienced marketing consultant is wrong and you are right?

Or as Marcus Tullius Cicero put it, "Any man can be wrong, but only an idiot persists in his error."

You need a name that others will remember, that does not tread on any corporate toes and occasion that 'cease-and-desist' letter and goes with a dot-com and a dot-co-dot-uk. When you have found that name, you must register the trademark with the IPO as well as registering the domains.

It is hard enough to get a new enterprise off the ground without hampering it with silly and utterly needless mistakes.

 

[brianelley]

Please don't take it personally. My objective is very clear at the moment - to get an MVP and get the investment. I can change the name and other bits at any point before launching the product. So, I don't want to worry about it at the moment.

 

[AllUpHere]

Oh, I understand what you are saying now. Thanks for explaining it.

My user's journey would be via the app, so, as long as the app is providing a valuable service then users will use it. If it's not providing a valuable service then the app and the company will die.

I am targeting very niche and modern users and I know them very well that they wouldn't mind this domain.

Ok, thanks for the info. I agree, partially. If the domain is only ever going to be reached via a link in an app, is never going to be typed and is never going to be searched for, it could be absolutely anything and it matters not one jot. However, my advice (when working on the actual product and not an MVP) would be to stay away from lesser known domains just in case your plans change and you want to market the site. There are an infinite amount of .com domain names left to register.

 

[brianelley]

However, my advice (when working on the actual product and not an MVP) would be to stay away from lesser known domains.

I want to respectfully disagree this. I've studied Google and SEO. I believe as long as the site can create trust, one way would be via backlinks and if we are lucky and got backlinks from trustworthy websites (say BBC or NASA or GOV sites), then the search engines increase the ranking rapidly.

 

[brianelley]

epicshow.com is also available but costs £4k. I want to be lean and paid £33/year for epic.show to get started.

 

[AllUpHere]

I want to respectfully disagree this. I've studied Google and SEO. I believe as long as the site can create trust, one way would be via backlinks and if we are lucky and got backlinks from trustworthy websites (say BBC or NASA or GOV sites), then the search engines increase the ranking rapidly.

You misunderstand my point. I'm not talking about an SEO advantage / disadvantage.

 

[NickGrogan]

if we are lucky and got backlinks from trustworthy websites (say BBC or NASA or GOV sites

How do you plan to get backlinks from Nasa for a video sharing app?

 

[brianelley]

I was just listing trustworthy websites. But hey it's impossible if we provide value with our service.