thanks for the replies! i knew i could ask here and receive the best of our collective minds as beekeepers to help me decide! KEEP THEM COMING!
to the poll i have added gypsi's suggestion of
'River Bees Honey'. the poll allows for one to change their vote if you would like. i didn't add jen's suggestion of
'Rush River Honey'......i will get to that and why jen.
perry thanks and you guys, i am not quite sure what 'smooth' means other than what iddee said about 'rolling off the tongue', i get that. perry you are right on about the 'name', will get to that.
lee, awesome label, this is how i want mine, SIMPLE, elegant and attractive/eye catching as yours is.
now to jen:
"I think I like Rush River Honey, drop 'company'. It has a lovely ring to it, and it also says that it's local honey". this is the name of my company.....
'Rush River Honey Company', rather than Rush River Apiaries or Rush River Honey Farm. this name appears on any correspondence or invoices/billing thank you letters and a business card. a little history and maybe some advice about 'branding' your honey and some legalities.
when we purchased the river property, i moved my bees there and expanded. i wanted to stand out from anyone else locally, capitalize on it and protect any labeling going forward, so that others could not copy or infringe on my label. the rush river is a very popular trout stream in wisconsin. we get fishers from all over the midwest that come to fish this river, of course locals, and a great deal of tourist traffic now because of an unprecedented outdoor restaurant. (not zoned for this).
i went to great effort to register my business name, trademark and trade name, and a slogan at the state and federal level and copyright a logo. in order to trademark a name, one cannot trademark a generic name, or in my case, the name of a specific body of water, the rush river. one cannot trademark this and protect it. so saying
'rush river honey' would give me absolutely no recourse or protection for anyone else that came along and named their honey that, (and they did). BUT, if i give something specific other than 'honey' after 'rush river', (like rush river gold) that changes the protection, and gives me a legal 'baseball bat' to go after anyone who decides to label their honey 'similar' to mine, even if it is only 'rush river honey'. same for the name of my company. if anyone decides they want to call themselves Rush River Honey Farm or Rush River Apiaries, i have the legal protection to keep them from doing so, if it is similar to mine, or would confuse a customer. in short, it is referred to as 'intellectual property rights'. no one can copy or come close to what i have registered and trademarked, and also, so as not to confuse customers. hope i made some sense? it was a very smart thing for me to do.
one of my neighbors decided to start keeping bees. he labeled his honey as 'Rush River Honey' and 'Rush River Honey Farm' and was selling in some local stores and the illegal outdoor restaurant.
another beek who doesn't even live on the river, examined my label. one month later he was advertising 'Rush River Honey', labeled as such, and selling it at farmers markets.
another unsavory beek purchased a domain name similar to my company name.
these folks were all sent essentially 'cease and desist' letters by certified mail and then some.
some of us are smaller and don't care about this, but i do. i have worked too hard to build my small business and i don't have time for those that want to piggyback on what i have capitalized on and created. don't mean to sound like a jerk, but it's amazing to me what folks do when they see your success and copy your hard work.
i enjoy the replies, keep thoughts and votes coming, sorry i was long winded.....
