XCTEQ Limited: The Story Behind Rebranding Saffron Apple
There is an emotional excitement to share an important news about Saffron Apple Limited that company Saffron Apple has been renamed, rebranded and rebuilt with name XCTEQ Limited. This name change will allow us to present ourselves as an innovative, effective leader in the Mobile DevOps space. We have renamed our company name from Saffron Apple to XCTEQ Limited. It’s just been a month after Starting Saffron Apple we have made this decision to change the name to avoid some potential trademark and intellectual property conflict with Apple Inc. Apple has clear guidelines and policies about their trademark mentioned here. In this post, I will cover some of the reasoning behind renaming Saffron Apple to XCTEQ and what are the lessons learned from it.
Why I named as Saffron Apple
Before jumping into why I renamed Saffron Apple, I will tell you a story why I named the company
Saffron Apple in the first place. Being a big fan of Apple, I was always passionate about their products, tools/technologies. I can’t hide the fact that I love Apple a lot and I will forever, regardless of their high priced products or some buggy software. In recent years, I actually started using tools and technologies developed by Apple and my love toward Apple reaches to the highest point. There are various things I love from the bottom of my heart like Swift, XCTest, Xcode Server, and most of the command line Apple developer tools. I have been using them in the day to day role and it feels awesome to use them. So I want to show some love for Apple in my business name.
Another reason for naming Company as saffron Apple is Saffron color. Being born and raised in the Hindu culture saffron color become part of my life. I am neutral in religious views but the saffron color made the huge impact on me.
So my love with the saffron color and Apple, I want to bridge together so I named Company as Saffron Apple. Before naming it, I have done some basic trademark search on the UK government website also Companies House didn’t found any sensitivity in the word Apple. Also, there were so many software companies operative in the world those have the word Apple in them. So I thought I will be fine with the name Saffron Apple
Why I considered Rebranding
Everything was fine until I went to the appointment for opening a business account for Saffron Apple at Barclays UK, they flagged the thing that there might be a potential conflict with Apple Inc as Saffron Apple has “Apple” in its name and also some of the services are actually using Apple developer tools and software. I decided to investigate this situation seriously, I found there were so many digital companies in software that operate with the name Apple in it and they have an online presence. So why it could be the problem with Saffron Apple.
First thing, I have approached Apple and told them the fact about the Saffron Apple company and its purpose. All the people I dealt with are very friendly and cooperative. They assured me the I have done the right thing approaching them. I also sent a letter to Apple legal department but the fastest reply I got over email that they don’t provide any advice for the third party regarding such situation. I understand that it’s perfectly fine. I also have taken legal advice and came to know that changing the name is the best for the future of my business so that I don’t have to worry about all these things. And more importantly, after launching Saffron Apple I realized various other things that aren’t working well with that name.
- Struggled to relate my expertise and product and tools with name Saffron Apple. All the things I have done so far has prefix XC eg XCBlog, XCFit, XCToken etc I can’t fit that into name Saffron Apple
- The name Saffron Apple might cause confusion and worries to my future clients.
- Don’t want to waste my time worrying about legal things.
- Can’t publish an iOS app for Saffron Apple on App Store because it has name Apple in it.
With all these limitations, I have decided to rebrand the Saffron Apple to XCTEQ
Why XCTEQ
After seeing all these problems in front of me, I was thinking another name for Saffron Apple and in past, I considered the names like that start with word XC e.g XCBrew, XCWork, XCStation etc but none of them attract me. When searching online I came across XCTEQ is unique in the world and can be used as the new company name. I like it and decided to go for it. With XCTEQ, I can do so many things and its relevant to my services and products. There won’t be any worries about legal things.
How Much Pain Involved
It was very surprising, shocking and emotional moment for me when I release the fact that I can’t use the name Saffron Apple. As I have invested a lot of time in building website, rebranding iOS app, setting up social media everywhere, creating the introductory video, business card, logo, etc etc. I released that, I have to do that again which sound very laborious task. However, I never gave up and started everything again whatever I have done so far. It was a bit painful, it involved sleepless nights and a bit of stress but at the end all sorted out. It was good that I found that in the early stage of Saffron Apple and a good chance to rebuild everything with before started trading.
XCTEQ Now
After the lot of hard work, XCTEQ has its website, services, products, video and other basic things sorted now. You can check out XCTEQ’s shiny website here
Sorted all the Social Media Accounts, Created an awesome introductory video, watch on Youtube here
I am all set for XCTEQ. Here we go, I stood up again and ready for new challenges.
Lessons Learned
During this migration, there are various lessons learned, I would like to share if someone wants to build a business of their passion.
- Research the trademark before you start, Don’t assume everything will be fine
- Contact directly to the company to resolve the potential issues.
- Take legal advice before starting a business, it will save a lot of time and efforts in future
- Don’t invest time or money in website, logo, app, social media etc until everything is confirmed
- Challenges are not finished, prepare yourself for upcoming challenges. Never, Never, Never Give Up.
Hope you find this useful when you start your own company. Please share your experiences what you feel about rebranding in the comments.
