Is Your Business Name Available? How to Check Your Business Name Availability in Your State

Yes. You'll want to start a trademark application as soon as your LLC is setup. By filing prior to launch, you can be sure that your name is protected once you begin making money. Keep in mind, you get common law rights to a name as soon as it is used in commerce. As soon as you start selling a product or a service, you can claim common law ownership of that trademark without formally registering it. You'll want to register it to easily win court cases against infringers.

The business name is the legal name of the entity. Owners often register a DBA that is different from the legal name. For example, Mary Johnson owns a small consulting business with a DBA as Mary Johnson's Coaching.

You'll want to register your trademark at the U.S. Patent and Trademark's Office's website at www.uspto.gov. Online trademark registration costs between $275 and $325 and requires date of mark's first use and category of goods and services. It takes six months usually to receive a response.

Two businesses can have the same name because business names are registered on a state by state basis. There could be intellectual property issues and trademark problems in the future when two companies have the same name. That's why it's important to register your trademarks officially with the USPTO.

If a business name is already registered with the USPTO, then it's trademarked. You are prohibited from using it, even if the business operates in a different state.

You can register your business name as a “standard character mark” which is any combo of letters & numbers with no reference to style, design, font or color. A “standard character mark” will provide protection for the name of the business or the slogan for the business and provides the right to use the name or a slogan (i.e. Just Do It)

Trademarks do not expire after a set period of time. Trademarks will persist as long as the owner continues to use the trademark. Once the USPTO grants a registered trademark, the owner must continue to use the trademark in ordinary commerce.

Copyright protects original work,whereas trademarks protect items that identify a particular business from another. Copyright is generated automatically when you create the original work, and a trademark is established through the common use of a mark during the course of business. The Nike Swoosh logo has trademark protection, and Nike registered the swoosh in 1995.