All the answers are yes. I would put it in the line near the Audio Pro, Argon Audio, and Arendal Sound.
I have nothing against your thing you are doing, but this is more like side hustle, or hobby that pays itself. Transition from being self employed to business is very hard usually. And there are many, lets call it "checkpoints" (to avoid language barrier) you have to pass until it can be called business.
I TM'ed my company name, but really did not have to. I sold internationally and the TM is only in the US so was only protected in the US. No one ever stomped on it. If Chris has decent personal assets, the S-Corp or whatever is equivalent in NL is probably more important.
Feel free to DM me. I will not know legal matters of NL, but business side of things is pretty much similar in EU.
Just don't choose a name similar to any of those. Particularly starting with another "A", or using Audio, if you can.
It's all part of building a distinction between you and the competition. Your own brand with its own distinct features.
...usually referred to as USP's, or 'unique selling points'. Which depending on their originality or uniqueness you should consider protecting as IP.
I see Arendal are on Trust Pilot (linked from their website) and I am in awe at their score and volume of 5* reviews. Since their first review March 29 2021 they have since had 2,296 reviews 94% 5*, 3% 4*, and <1% 2* & 1*. If that's legitimate then it's a bigger market than I had expected and you're up against tough competition.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/arendalsound.com?utm_medium=trustbox&utm_source=MicroCombo
You can't protect something like "unique selling points" as intellectual property. If there is a specific unique feature of the device that no one else has it might to possible to get a patent.
10 points for simply turning 'protect IP' into 'get a patent'.
State the obvious why don't you.
You have to admit that statistically that's a pretty rare occurrence even though it actually happened. The bean-counters would have determined that the cost increase alone of having a primary/reserve supply chain outside Japan would have outweighed any risk of an earthquake wiping it out entirely.
Tbh, my biggest issue at the moment is maintaining a constant quality level from some of my suppliers.
Cable stock quality from vanDamme, Sommer etc is fine and constant, no complaints. But some connectors are being 'upgraded' on a constant basis without me being notified in advance, also even from Neutrik.
Not a huge issue and it's ultimately controllable but it would be nice to be kept in the loop by suppliers of any technical revisions they make that might potentially affect my finished assembled products.
As it is I have to react and adapt and having been trained in risk-management (nuclear environment) I would actually prefer to be able to pre-empt and prepare.
No biggie though. No-one is going to suffer radiation burns from plugging my cables in I think 😀
When he refers to my successful business which I've worked damned hard to grow over the last 2 years as a 'side-hustle' then I'm entitled to react accordingly. There's no 'language barrier' when using that kind of slur.
Arendal's annual revenue is about $4m (according to public information). But I mentioned them only as an example of a business model or appearance style. If you make speakers, you compete with everyone doing something similar. There is Dynaudio, whose revenue is $50m. What do these numbers mean to me? Nothing except the checkpoints I can potentially reach. But I don't need such revenue to be profitable.