No registered trademark yet: what a new brand can do about a taken Instagram handle

If your brand name is taken on Instagram and you do not have a registered trademark, Instagram’s username route is effectively closed to you. Usernames are first-come, first-served and cannot be reserved, and the trademark report that can get an infringing username changed asks for a registration. What still works is narrower but real: an impersonation report if the account pretends to be your business, copyright reports for anything it copies from you, and a handle plan that holds until your registration comes through.

This guide is for new brands in that position: what you can do this week, what not to waste time on, and what a registration will and will not change later.

The short answer

• No registration, no username report: Instagram’s trademark form is built around registered marks.
• A pending application is not enough: the form asks for a registration number or certificate.
• Impersonation still works: if the account pretends to be your business, report it as impersonation. No registration needed.
• Copyright still works: your photos, videos and original artwork are protected; your name is not.
• Do not buy the handle: Instagram’s Terms prohibit buying, selling or transferring usernames.
• Start the registration now, and use a clean variation of your name in the meantime.

Why the username door is closed without a registration

Instagram’s help page on an account using your registered trademark as its username is, as the title says, about registered trademarks. It also states the rule behind everything else: usernames “are provided on a first-come, first-served basis and may not be reserved.”

The Trademark Report Form makes the requirement concrete. It opens by asking whether you own a registered trademark. It says each report must concern one registered trademark, asks where the trademark is registered and for the registration number, and wants either a link to the registration in an online trademark database or a copy of the certificate, adding that only trademark certificates are accepted as attachments. It also warns that abuse of the form may result in the termination of your account. There is no field for “we have been using this name for two years”.

To be fair to the details: Instagram’s general list of what a trademark report needs describes the basis for your rights as “such as a national or community registration”, with the registration number “if applicable”, and some countries do protect unregistered marks through use. But Instagram’s page on how to report trademark infringement says it is not in a position to act on reports that require an in-depth trademark analysis or involve a real-world dispute. An argument about unregistered rights against an account that got the name first is exactly that kind of case. In practice, without a registration, the username door is shut.

What still works today

If the account pretends to be your business: impersonation

Impersonation is handled separately from trademarks and does not ask for a registration. Instagram’s page on reporting an account for impersonation says you can report an account that is pretending to be you, someone you follow, a celebrity or public figure, or a business or organization. It also draws a line: you can report an account for impersonating someone or something, but not for misrepresenting itself.

So the question is what the account actually does. One that uses your logo, speaks as your brand, answers customer messages as if it were you, or tells people it is your official shop is impersonating you. One that simply holds your name as a handle, or posts about something unrelated, is not. Instagram also allows accounts dedicated to brands, as long as they state clearly that they are a fan or commentary account and do not pretend to be the brand or misrepresent their relationship to it.

When you report, have your official account, your website and dated screenshots of the account presenting itself as you ready. A report that shows both accounts side by side is easier to assess.

If it copies your photos, videos or artwork: copyright

Instagram’s intellectual property overview explains the split: copyright protects original works such as words and images, but it “doesn’t protect things like names, titles and slogans”, which are trademark territory. You cannot use copyright to take back a name. You can use it against every product photo, video or piece of original artwork the account has copied from you, one report per post, without any registration. Our guide to choosing between trademark and copyright reports has a section on combining routes when the mark is unregistered.

What does not work

• Filing a trademark report without a registration. The form asks for one, the declaration is made under penalty of perjury, and the form itself warns that abuse can end your own account.
• Arguing that the account is inactive. Instagram has no process for claiming a name from an inactive account; its answer is to choose an available variation.
• Buying the handle. The Instagram Terms of Use prohibit attempts to buy, sell or transfer any aspect of an account, including the username. People who sell handles, or promise to free one up for a fee, are offering something that breaks the Terms, and the offer is a common scam.

What a registration will change, and what it will not

Registering your name in your main market is the single step that changes your position. Once it is registered, the username reason on the trademark form, “the rights owner’s trademark is used in the profile picture, name, username or bio”, becomes available to you. Two practical points while you file:

• Cover what you actually sell. Instagram’s list of what a trademark report needs includes the category of goods or services you claim rights in, so choose classes that match what you sell.
• Register where your customers are. The form asks for the country or office of registration, and trademark rights are territorial.

A registration still will not win every case. Instagram’s page on what trademark infringement is notes that use on unrelated goods may not be infringement, that which party used the mark first can be an important consideration, and that trademark rights have geographic limits. If the handle belongs to a business in another field, or one that used the name before you, a registration may not change anything. And where Instagram does act, its Terms speak of changing the infringing username, not handing it to you. Our guide to the trademark route for a taken username covers that part in detail.

Your interim handle plan

You need a handle today, and it should be one you would be happy to keep.

1. Choose a clean variation. Instagram’s own suggestion for a taken name is to choose an available version with periods, numbers, underscores or abbreviations. For a brand, a short descriptor usually reads better: the category, your city or country, or “studio”, “shop” or “hq”.
2. Use it everywhere. The same handle on every platform teaches customers one name and makes copies easier to spot.
3. Put the full brand name in the profile name field, which is separate from the username.
4. Make the official account verifiable. Link it from your website, your email signature and your packaging, so a customer who finds the other account can check which one is real.
5. Watch for copies. Search your brand name on Instagram regularly. An account that starts selling under your name is a different, reportable situation.

When to get help

If the account holding your name is simply someone else using a common word, the honest advice is the plan above: pick a strong variation, register your mark, and move on. Help is worth it when the account is impersonating your business, copying your product photos, or taking money from your customers, and when you need the routes combined so that one review sees the whole picture. That is the work behind our copyright and brand protection service. We work only through Instagram’s official reporting channels, we do not buy, sell or “release” usernames, we make no guarantees, and if the other account is not breaking any rule we will tell you. You can start with a free case review.