The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 marked a turning point for AI. In three short years, AI has been integrated into everything from our phone cameras to Google Maps, impacting our personal and professional lives in previously unthinkable ways.

From logistics to healthcare, AI integration is streamlining processes and finding efficiencies, and the ability of AI to trawl vast databases, simplify information and provide coherent outputs is reducing barriers in every industry. Nowhere is this more apparent than in brand-building, where LLMs can convert business ideas into powerful brand names, and data analysis can enhance performance marketing: in 2025, AI is making it easier than ever to start a business.

As AI revolutionizes processes around launching and maintaining a brand, it should come as no surprise that one traditional industry is ripe for an innovative update: trademarking. Once one of the driest and most legalistic areas of business, AI is shaking up trademarking and giving every business founder the tools they need to build and protect a unique brand.

Traditional Barriers to Trademarking

For decades, trademarking has been one of the slowest and most confusing parts of 

launching a company, even though it’s fundamental to brand protection. Due to a range of concerns, most founders skip it, and the 2022 edition of the Intellectual Property SME Scoreboard found that fewer than one in ten small-to-medium-sized businesses owned any trademark at all.

Because navigating the trademarking process has traditionally required specialist legal knowledge, budgeting is the main concern, while for brands that go it alone, the complexity of the application process forms another barrier. This is especially evident in the USPTO “class” system, which requires founders to register in multiple categories of a complex class system — with mounting fees for each class.

What’s more, brand protection is a process, and concerns over the timeline can also dissuade new businesses from starting the journey. The whole trademarking application process can take over a year, while ongoing brand monitoring is traditionally expensive and time-consuming.

Trademarking Matters to Every Brand — Not Just the Big Names

While these barriers prevent many founders from protecting their intellectual property rights, the Intellectual Property SME Scoreboard found that of those that do, virtually all of them benefit from it, with its research revealing that 93% of businesses with trademarks report a positive impact from owning their brand.

While big-name trademark disputes hit the press, small and local businesses often consider trademarking irrelevant. However, small businesses are equally at risk of intellectual property infringement and around one in six SMEs with IP are affected, a figure that’s undoubtedly higher for those without legally protected trademark rights. In the fight to protect a brand from counterfeiting, trademark rights are the first line of defense, and give brands effective legal recourse to recover damages for infringement.

Beyond legal rights, trademarking has significant brand benefits and ensures that a brand’s name, logo, and other key assets remain uniquely associated with its products and positioning in that industry. This protection is crucial in building, marketing and maintaining a memorable brand.

AI Comes To Trademarking

We’re seeing a broader shift of AI solving long-standing problems in traditional industries, and trademarking, traditionally gatekept by specialist knowledge and bound in legal complexity, is no different.

AI search is providing the first step, giving brands a fast and effective way to explore where and how potential names are in use. AI can scan multiple databases as well as validate for matching and available domain names (in multiple extensions) to give brands an immediate overview of whether shortlisted business names are viable within their industry.

AI, backed by attorney oversight, can also create faster filing, streamline the application process and aid brands in navigating specific complexities such as the USPTO class system. 

Lastly, AI can automate brand monitoring, enabling new, innovative trademark platforms such as Trademark by Atom to offer complete packages that guide brands through the trademarking process. With increased clarity, efficiency and economy, trademarking is becoming something that every brand can afford.

Wrapping Up

While AI might be everywhere, we have to remember it’s in its infancy. It will take time to discover how major AI integration plays out within businesses, and whether or not fully-integrated AI flows can replace traditional pathways. For now, though, simple AI integrations are solving long-standing problems in industries from healthcare to trademarking.

As AI continues to democratize access to complex processes, it’s not just changing how brands are built. New tools are transforming how they’re protected, and ushering in an era where innovation, efficiency, and accessibility go hand in hand.