Comments on: What trademark and other legal issues are involved in selecting a company name?

By: company naming

company naming — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:16:35 +0000

You will need to make sure that the business name you plan to use is not already being used by another business. You can do this by doing a name search with the appropriate state agency, which is usually the office of the Secretary of State.

By: Julia Page

Julia Page — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:20:23 +0000

I have a registered trademark on my logo and the name of my product in New Zealand in the spice industry. I have noticed that a spice company in the states has registered the name in the USA. Can I market my product with the register logo only and not the name since they have registered the name only?

By: Duffy

Duffy — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:12:04 +0000

If a company A is using a name in one state first (with state registration), and then company B across the country (with no overlap in markets, but in the same industry) has used the name prior to company A (but has not registered the trademark with the federal gvt), what kind of common law use is evoked? That is, could Company B sue Company A and make that company change their name? Just wondering how, with the Internet, these issues are being resolved.

By: Name

Name — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:22:18 +0000

Suppose a person takes an English word, changes one of its letters and registers it as the name of a company and gets a trademark for it. Would this be a trademark violation if the original English word has been used by another company?
E.g., consider Apple Corporation. If another company, in a different business, uses Epple as its name and trademark, would this be a violation of Apple's trademark?

By: gnljones

gnljones — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:22:11 +0000

I am launching a new company and applied for Trademarks on a logo, company name and product name. What do I need to put on the packaging of the product to protect these trademarks?

By: Yokum

Yokum — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:10:18 +0000

@Tony – you need to discuss this with a trademark specialist.

By: Yokum

Yokum — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:10:18 +0000

@Tony – you need to discuss this with a trademark specialist.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:39:12 +0000

If one person has a trademarked name of a product, can another person use that name for their usernamej/email address legally? I have a trademarked product and when I went to use that name as my emial address, I found that someone else has used my product name as their email address. Is is within my legal right to ask them to not use that name?

By: Yokum

Yokum — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:42:37 +0000

@Jegman,

Yes, but you need to actually use the trademark in order to attempt to protect it.

If there are consultants that are doing work on the website, it is cleaner to have these people assign IP to an entity as opposed to you personally. If you start promising equity to consultants in a yet to be incorporated entity, it may get very messy to document/clean up later.

By: Jegman

Jegman — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:39:39 +0000

Two questions…

In regard to trademarks, is it possible to trademark a logo without the prospective company being incorporated yet? If so, would you advise against this?

I’m currently building a website with hopes to later build a business around it. Can I continue during the next few months of development and generating interest without the legal setup. I’m not at the point where common shares, tax, etc. are points to consider just yet? I’d like to go as long as possible without the legal setup, but perhaps this is quite stupid of me?

Thanks