Beekeeping and hive management company gets help from Hartman Global

When Nadia and Casey Silvernail started their beekeeping and hive management company in Valparaiso, they didn’t intend to call it URSIDAE Apiary. The company’s concept of servicing clients’ hives and overseeing their honey production was initially inspired from helping Casey’s mom with bees in her backyard. With URSIDAE Apiary, bees and honeycombs are completely managed on one’s home property. The Silvernails actually had every intention to call it “Backyard Bees,” until they learned the name had already been trademarked.

“We were absolutely in love with the name ‘Backyard Bees,’” Nadia Silvernail said. “We did a deep search to make sure no one else was using it and even looked through the trademark search. ‘Backyard Bees’ was not listed as taken.”

As fate would have it, there was in fact another entity – a bee-removal service company, that had trademarked Backyard Bees years prior. By the time the Silvernails discovered this with the help of the legal team at Hartman Global, they had already been running with the name for two months.

“Luckily, we hadn’t started creating marketing materials, nor had we invested in printing, signage, the website, or anything like that,” Casey Silvernail said. “After finding out that another company had trademarked Backyard Bees, it was stressful and one of our larger hurdles as business owners. It could have been so much worse if we had invested in materials.”

The Silvernails had also used Claude, an artificial intelligence (AI), thinking that AI could be yet another tool to explore whether “Backyard Bees” had been trademarked.

“AI does not replace a lawyer,” Casey Silvernail said. “With AI, you don’t know the quality of what you are producing. You don’t know where it’s pulling information from. Luckily, we had leveraged trademark lawyers from Hartman Global to help us, and we didn’t rely solely on AI.”

After learning about the trademark, the couple and co-founders spent the next week brainstorming and researching different names. Eventually, they came up with their current business name, URSIDAE Apiary.

“I grew up helping my family at their wildlife park where we raised many animals, including bears,” Casey Silvernail said. “The name ‘URSIDAE Apiary’ has a connection to bears so it’s very meaningful to me from that perspective.”

As many business owners do, the Silvermans learned a lot through this experience.

“Nadia and Casey initially wished to brand their business with a company name and trademark that was owned by a company out west. It had a federal trademark for the similar name and was used in association with similar services,” said Domenica Hartman, Hartman Global partner. “This is a legal no-no. I could write a book on all the clients that have come to our firm with a cease-and-desist letter received within a week of opening their business, because they did not do the required trademark search beforehand.”

By leaning on Hartman Global, the Silvernails were able to officially launch their business and marketing collateral with complete confidence.

“Nadia and Casey have done their homework and are launching URSIDAE Apiary with peace of mind,” Hartman said. “Hartman Global wishes them well in their endeavors and are confident in their success.”

To learn more about URSIDAE Apiary and the Silverman’s story visit ursidaeapiary.com.

For additional information on Hartman Global, you can visit hartmanglobal-ip.com.