Serena Williams, SERENA VENTURES, and the Trademark Lesson Every Founder Should Know

Serena Williams is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. But when it comes to trademark law, being famous does not automatically mean a name is available for registration.

On August 12, 2026, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) affirmed the USPTO’s refusal to register SERENA VENTURES, the name Williams used for her venture capital business. The issue was not whether Serena Williams is famous. The issue was an existing federal registration for SERENA covering financial and investment services that overlapped with the services listed in Williams’ trademark application.

And for founders, that distinction is important.

What happened?

Williams applied to register SERENA VENTURES in November 2020 for services including venture capital financing, investment of funds, equity investment, and funding services for emerging companies. The USPTO later cited an existing registration for SERENA that included services such as financing services, investment advisory services, and capital investment services.

Williams appealed the refusal to the TTAB.

The Board ultimately concluded that several of the services were either identical or legally overlapping. For example, the existing registration covered broadly worded “capital investment services” and “financing services,” while Williams’ application included more specific venture-capital and equity-investment services. Trademark law generally treats broad descriptions as covering the narrower services that fall within them.

That is a detail founders often miss: the USPTO is not only looking at what each company actually does today. It is looking at the goods and services identified in the trademark records.

Adding another word did not solve the problem

Williams was seeking SERENA VENTURES, not simply SERENA.

But that distinction did not carry enough weight.

The Board found SERENA to be the dominant portion of SERENA VENTURES. “Ventures” had been disclaimed and was descriptive of the investment-related services being offered. Because Williams' mark incorporated the entirety of SERENA, the marks were considered substantially similar.

This is why a founder cannot necessarily avoid a trademark conflict by adding words like:

“Group,” “Co.,” “Studio,” “Consulting,” “Media,” or “Ventures.”

If the dominant portion of the mark is already protected for related goods or services, adding descriptive wording may not create enough distinction.

But everyone knows who Serena Williams is

That was one of the most interesting aspects of the decision.

The TTAB took judicial notice that Serena Williams is a well-known tennis player. But the Board explained that her fame in tennis did not automatically establish that consumers encountering SERENA VENTURES in the financial-services market would view the name as uniquely connected to her.

In other words:

Personal fame and trademark rights are not the same thing.

The same principle applies on a smaller scale to founders with strong personal brands. Having 500,000 Instagram followers, appearing on television, owning the matching domain name, or being known professionally under a particular name does not automatically mean the name is federally registrable for every business you launch.

Sophisticated customers didn't eliminate the problem either

Williams also argued that venture-capital customers are sophisticated and exercise substantial care when selecting investment partners.

The Board largely agreed that these customers would exercise greater-than-ordinary care. That factor actually weighed slightly against a likelihood of confusion.

It still was not enough.

The similarity of the marks, overlap in the services, and presumed overlap in customers and channels outweighed purchaser sophistication.

This matters particularly for B2B founders who sometimes assume: My customers are businesses. They would know the difference.

Trademark law does not necessarily stop there.

Another founder lesson: geography may not save you

Williams also pointed to geographic differences between the businesses. But because the cited SERENA registration was an unrestricted federal registration, the Board explained that its owner received presumptive nationwide rights for the identified services. The parties' current geographic separation therefore did not resolve the registration issue.

A founder searching only their city—or even their state—can therefore miss a federal trademark issue entirely.

What founders should do before investing in a brand

The real lesson here is not that founders should avoid personal names. It is that brand clearance should happen before the brand becomes expensive to change.

Before committing significant money to a company name, product, service, or new brand extension, founders should evaluate more than exact matches. A meaningful trademark search considers similar wording, spelling and pronunciation; related goods and services; federal applications and registrations; and whether consumers could reasonably assume two brands are affiliated.

A Google search is useful business research.

It is not the same thing as a trademark clearance search.

One important piece of context

The decision should not be read as the reason Williams' venture firm changed its name.

Before the TTAB issued its August decision, Williams had already publicly announced that Serena Ventures had become Starfire Ventures. She explained that she wanted the firm to become bigger than her personal identity and have a brand capable of living beyond her. Her attorney later told the press that the SERENA VENTURES application was no longer being pursued.

So this is less a story about Serena Williams making a branding mistake and more a useful illustration of how federal trademark law actually works.

The Zova Takeaway

Your business name can feel completely original to you and still present trademark risk.

The better sequence is:

Search → assess the risk → file → then invest heavily in the brand.

Because the worst time to discover a trademark problem is after the website is built, the packaging is printed, the marketing campaign is running, and customers already know the name.