Goodbye TM, Hello R: Why Trust, Not Code, Builds AI Companies

Today I received confirmation from BOIP: ReplyFabric® is now officially a registered trademark.
Goodbye ™. Hello ®.

It’s a small symbol, but it represents something bigger — ownership, protection, and trust.
When you build a brand, this is one of the most strategic steps. You don’t want to spend months investing in visibility and reputation, only to face a claim that forces a rebrand. Protect early, sleep better later.

But this milestone made me think about something broader. Andrew Ng said on the No Priors podcast, “Things that used to take six engineers three months to build, my friends and I can now build on a weekend.”
AI has compressed the startup loop. Prototypes that once took weeks now take a day.
That means waiting even a week for user feedback feels “really painful.”

The bottleneck is no longer in development — it’s in deciding what to build, and how fast to adjust.
Ng noted that teams are “increasingly relying on gut,” and that the best product managers bring deep customer empathy.
They don’t just analyze data; they form a mental model of the ideal customer and make rapid, human-centered product decisions.

That resonates deeply. Because in AI, anyone can build fast — but not everyone can build right.
Technology speed only amplifies the importance of judgment, clarity, and empathy.

At ReplyFabric, we live by that principle.
We’re Security-First, GDPR-First, and Customer-First — by design, not as an afterthought.
Trust is built through respect for data, transparency in decisions, and relentless focus on the user experience.

Because code can be copied — trust cannot.
And trust is the new moat.

So yes — today I celebrate a letter: ®
But more than that, I celebrate what it stands for: a commitment to building something that lasts longer than the next API call.