Report subject
QueryBusiness name protection
How to protect and trademark a business name
Clearance searches, state registration, federal trademarks, and the difference between the name a state records for your entity and a mark you can actually defend. Set out as a report, one chapter at a time, in the order a new business usually meets them.
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Explained, not performed
This site describes how a clearance search works. It never runs one for you or reports a result.
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No scores or rankings
Where one route suits a business better, the reason is given in words.
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Not legal advice
A disputed or valuable name is a matter for a trademark attorney.
Chapter one
Searching a name before you use it
A clearance search checks whether someone already has a claim to the name you want. No single database answers that, because rights in a name come from several places at once.
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State business entity records
The business search run by each state shows the LLCs and corporations already formed there. A state accepting your entity name only means it differs from names on that state’s own list.
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The federal trademark register
The USPTO’s trademark search shows registered marks and pending applications nationwide, including names that are spelled differently but sound alike.
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State trademark registers
Many states keep a trademark register of their own, separate from their entity records, so a name can be clear on one list and taken on the other.
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Unregistered use in the market
A business can hold rights in a name it has used without ever registering it. Web searches, directories, marketplaces and app stores are where that use shows up.
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Domains and social handles
An available domain says nothing about who owns a name as a brand, but a taken one tells you someone else is already trading under it.
Chapter two
Registering a name, and what each filing protects
An entity name and a trademark are different things, filed in different places, for different reasons. Most of the confusion about protecting a business name starts here.
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Entity name
Forming an LLC or corporation puts the name on one state’s records. It stops a second entity forming under the same name there and grants no trademark rights.
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Assumed name or DBA
A filing that lets a business trade under a name other than its legal one. In most places it is a public notice, not a claim to exclusive use.
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State trademark registration
Registers the name as a mark within a single state. Useful for a business that trades locally and expects to stay that way.
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Federal trademark registration
Registration with the USPTO gives nationwide notice of ownership for the goods or services listed in the application, and the right to use the registered symbol.
The two symbols. Anyone can put the TM symbol beside a name they use as a brand. The registered symbol, an R in a circle, is reserved for marks registered with the USPTO.
Chapter three
When two businesses want the same name
Two businesses can often share a name without trouble when they sell unrelated things in different markets. When they cannot, these are the questions that decide it.
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Likelihood of confusion
The question at the centre of most name disputes: whether buyers would mistake one business for the other, given how alike the names are and how related the goods or services are.
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Who used it first
Trademark rights generally follow use. Forming an entity first does not by itself beat an earlier business that was already trading under the name.
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How distinctive the name is
An invented or unexpected name is easier to protect than one that describes what the business does. A purely descriptive name may not be registrable at all.
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Letters, oppositions and rebranding
Disputes often start with a cease and desist letter. A pending federal application can be opposed once it is published, and some conflicts end with one side choosing a new name.
Report index
How this report is organised
The site follows the order a name usually travels: checked first, then put on record, then defended if someone else claims it.
- Searching a nameThe records a clearance search looks through, and what each one can and cannot tell you.
- Registering itEntity name, assumed name, state mark and federal mark, and what each one protects.
- When names conflictHow disputes over a business name are decided, and how they usually begin.
- Reading this reportHow the site is written, and what it does not do for you.
Reading notes