No one had heard of the term crowdfunding when an entrepreneur named Michael Sullivan first used it in 2006. Since then, crowdfunding has grown into a multibillion-dollar global industry. The word and the concept are part of our daily lives. Scores of entrepreneurs take their ideas to Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, and other crowdfunding platforms with one goal: to raise enough money to turn those ideas into reality.

Success in crowdfunding hinges on the support of the crowd — your future customers. In this article, we’ll delve into how to create and launch a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Say you’re a coffee business and you want to create an iced, blended coffee drink similar to Starbucks’ beloved Frappuccino® Blended Beverage. Be careful what you name it. You don’t want to create likelihood of confusion.

Coffee Culture Cafe, a Canadian coffee franchise, knows this firsthand. Ten years after Starbucks introduced its now-iconic Frappuccino®, Coffee Culture Cafe launched a blended-ice coffee drink called the Freddoccino.

Freddoccino, Frappuccino®. The names and logos are different — but not that different.

Starbucks noticed, of course. Long story short, they took Coffee Culture Cafe’s parent company to court for trademark infringement, aiming to prove likelihood of confusion.