If I take the time to really think it through, my current situation was inevitable.

I have spent years building a reputation, putting in the effort and energy to build a brand and name recognition. It's only a matter of time before someone would start to take action to undermine my efforts.

However, I didn't expect that the steps needed to protect the name would result in a change of the name.

Yep, you read that right. The decision to start taking action to register a trademark to protect my business name led to the decision to actually change the business name. My publishing imprint has an entirely new name (registered business name and everything). Whereas my editorial and coaching services will be moved under my Judy L Mohr brand.

Let me set the stage and fill you in on the complexities of the mess.

It started with an email from the Chinese domain registrar

You have no idea how many bogus emails I get every day, many of them wanting me to click one link or another. And many of them come in from Chinese, Hong Kong, or Italian addresses.

Most of the time, I just ignore them and hit delete. However, there was this one email that felt different. I have no idea what it was about the email that made me actually open it and read it. It didn't scream "SCAM" like the other emails often do.

The subject line was just "blackwolfeditoral". That's it. Nothing else. And again, I see a lot of these, often with a SEO scam, from someone promising to boost my SEO rankings. But this one contained no links to click on, along with zero promises about SEO or business reach. And there were no attachments.

Instead, it was just an email saying that someone had applied for the Chinese domain names for "blackwolfeditorial". And the email was only asking if I was associated with the company that had made the application.

The sender's email seemed legit. And the fact that it wasn't asking me to click a link or purchase anything only added to the legit feel.

So, I responded, saying that I had zero affiliation with the company in question, and confirmed that the application would be in conflict with my trademark and company name.

I did get an email in response, highlighting that if I chose to purchase the Chinese domains that my application would be honored. But of course, I have zero desire to take such an action. Instead, I started looking at legal options to protect my business name.

And this is where things quickly got dicey and led to a decision that I needed to change my business name.

A trademark search that went belly up

To protect company names, you need to take two separate actions:

• you need to register that company name in some fashion
• and you need to apply for a trademark for that name.

My business name of Black Wolf Editorial Services has been a registered business name for many years now, opening doors for business back in 2015. And when I registered my business name, I put both Black Wolf Editorial Services and Black Wolf Publications on the applications. And it was all approved.

But I hadn't filed for a registered trademark. It would appear that was my big mistake. Though, I didn't know it until very recently.

So, when I started to seriously look into the trademark steps to protect my business name (and my publishing imprint), I discovered a huge mess that I needed to unravel.

At the time of writing this post, there was a pending trademark application in place within my home country (New Zealand) for "Black Wolf" that included books and publishing as part of the application. And it would appear that the application was lodged by someone in the health and fitness sector, so why books and publishing were part of the list, I have no idea. But I only had one reaction to this discovery: "CRAP!"'

So, I decided to do a bit more digging on an international level… and my search quickly brought up at least two other publishers with Black Wolf in the name: Black Wolf Edition & Publishing Ltd (a registered company in Scotland that publishes children's picture books) and Black Wolf Books (what looks like a self-publishing imprint by someone in the US).

But I'm not one to give up lightly, so I consulted a lawyer. And their legal opinion: A trademark on "Black Wolf" specifically was always going to be questionable. The fact that there are international entities who operate in the same space under similar names only makes it even harder. They advised me to reconsider my company name.

It wasn't something that I wanted to be doing, but I knew deep down that they were right. If anyone needed an incentive to change a company name, the existing pending trademark in my home country and the two publishing houses overseas was enough. But because I could, I dug even deeper.

I searched the Global Register of Publishers (an international list of all imprints that have ever been issued ISBNs). My search turned up even more publishing imprints with Black Wolf in the name.

• Black Wolf (United States)
• Black Wolf Books, Incorporated (United States)
• Black Wolf Edition & Publishing Ltd (United Kingdom)
• Black Wolf Inc (United States)
• Black Wolf Matrix (United States)
• Black Wolf Press (United States)
• Black Wolf Production (United States)
• Black Wolf Productions (United States)
• Black Wolf Studio (United States)
• BlackMagicWolf Productions (United States)
• Blackwolf Books (United States)
• Blackwolf Press (United States)
• Rare Black Wolf (Australia)
• WhiteWolfBlackRabbit (New Zealand)

And of course, my own imprint of Black Wolf Publications (New Zealand) was listed twice.

OMG, there was no way that I could keep publishing under that imprint name. That was a cease-and-desist letter waiting to happen.

So, the decision was made to create a new imprint immediately. While two books will continue to have the publisher listed as Black Wolf Publications (until such time a new version was published), all new books would be under a new imprint name from now on. And with my production schedule that I wanted to stick to, I was going to have to work fast!

Finding a new name

I spent a good afternoon brainstorming a lot of new names, checking them against the various databases.

I checked the WIPO Global Brand Database to check on trademarks from around the world. I searched in the NZ business register, looking at trademarks and businesses in New Zealand. I let my fingers do the walking, searching on Google. And I checked WhoIs for domains that might be similar.

As I got closer to the name, I also checked the Global Register for Publishers.

And I settled on a name that is unique and has a connection and relevance to me.

To my lovely Peeps, I will officially be publishing from now on under the imprint name of:

Rhodon Press

Website is up and running (even if there are some tweaks that need to be made to the site to make it all pretty). Email is operational. Books have been loaded into the catalogue. ISBNs have been issued.

I still need to finalize a logo and a colophon, but that will happen before the end of the year as I commission covers for the 2026 releases. (Clock is ticking on this one.)

And when I have some more finances, I'll be registering its trademark. I won't be waiting 10 years before taking the steps to legally protect myself. And this time, I'm starting with a name that I know with certainty that no one else is using, with no trademarks pending within my industry and field. And there are zero publishers that have similar names, so I'm in the clear on that front too.

Editorial activities shifting under the Judy L Mohr brand

It's my editorial and writing coaching activities that have given me the most angst. Come December 2025, I will have been in business for 10 years, operating under the name of Black Wolf Editorial Services since the day I started. But because of this trademark mess, that too needs to change. And the decision is to move all of my editing business to under the umbrella of Judy L Mohr.

It was a lot of soul searching, considering the trajectory of the business and where I have built the name. Two years ago, I made the conscious choice to shift my social media activities to accounts that were all under the name of Judy L Mohr. And my nonfiction books are all being published under my name, only adding to that name recognition. Black Wolf has become just a blip on the map that is hiding in the shadow of my name.

But because of the way I had built the brand recognition, there was a problem within my online presence that needs to be corrected. As prospective clients came to my website, there wasn't a clear workflow to allow them to find my editorial services. Sure, there was a link in the main menu, but on the mobile version of the site, visitors weren't seeing that link. Because of it, I was missing out on leads.

All of this combined only highlights to me how I would be better off if all editorial and writing coaching activities were moved to under my Judy L Mohr website and brand.

So, the decision is to dismantle the Black Wolf Editorial site and operations, absorbing them into the Judy L Mohr brand. It's an insane amount of work to make it all happen, and I still need to work through the backend logistics of it all, but the transition will be complete by the end of the year. (It has to be. I have publishing deadlines that are riding on this transition happening by that time.)

What you can expect to see

Over the course of the next few months, this website will be getting a massive overhaul, and this includes the basic functionality of the site.

• All evergreen posts from Black Wolf Editorial will be moving to the blog on this site (but with dates backdated to match their original publication dates).
• Categories for the blog posts will change, allowing me to provide tagging for what would be considered a "writer's journey" post versus an "editor's hat" post. And we still have all the "Hidden Traps of the Internet" posts. I'm mapping it all out, and it's a huge job.
• The home page will no longer be the blog page, but will shift to something that is more reflective of the different features that will be found within the Judy L Mohr brand.
• Pages will move around, and pages will be added. You might visit the site one day, then the next day, things have moved on you. Until the transition is complete, the site will remain transient.
• The newsletters for my author persona and my editor persona will continue to be separate. They have different content and serve different purposes. The need for that separation still exists. I just need to work out the backend logistics of it.

It sucks that I'm in this situation, but it's best that I know now, while I'm still building brand recognition. I would have been heartbroken if I had come to this discovery about the Black Wolf name some years down the road and be forced to change the name and republish books.