91. Does My Podcast Name Need to Be Unique? | Podcasting Title Tips

FAQ Friday answering the podcasting question of "Does My Podcast Name Need to Be Unique?"

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

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Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for solopreneurs and FAQ Friday, where I answer a podcasting question in five minutes or less. Before we dive in, I wanna say that I have currently exhausted my listener submitted questions. While there are a ton of common questions that I can answer, I would love to address your specific questions. So use the send me your question link in the episode description to tell me what you want to know about podcasting. And if you would like a shout out, be sure to include your name and your podcast if you have one. Today's question is, does my podcast name need to be unique? This is a question that I see come up in Facebook groups all the time, and the answer is yes. Your podcast name does need to be unique, and that's for a couple of reasons. First, you don't want to infringe on someone else's trademark or use of that name.

That could potentially land you in legal hot water, and it's just not very ethical. You also don't want to cause confusion for your listeners. If you tell someone about your show and they head to their podcast player to search for it, they might accidentally click on the wrong show if there are two or more with the same name. Even if the other show seems dormant or covers a different topic than you do, I still wouldn't recommend using it. So how do you know if the name is already taken? First and foremost, search the Patent and Trademark Database for your country. If you are located outside of The US, you probably also want to search The US database, which can be found at uspto.gov. If a trademark is found, you could and probably will face legal action if you try to use it. Assuming that it's all clear there, then you want to head to both Apple Podcasts and Spotify to search for the name.

If the exact match already exists, then you need to change yours so that it's at least slightly different. For example, one of my clients was originally trying to go for the name simple weight loss, but there's already a show by that name. So we decided to go with weight loss made simple. It uses the same words, but it's different enough, and that's what matters. If you have a podcasting question, click the send me your question link in the episode description, and I will answer it in an upcoming episode. Until next time, happy podcasting.