Search Your Business Name - Why You Need To & How To Get Started

Starting a new businses can be overwhelming, exciting and confusing all at once. No matter the industry, all new businesses have to deal with financing, advertising, organization, ownership structure, etc. One area this is neglected by many is ensuring that the name of the business is trluy available.There are 16+ million trade names in use in the United States. Similar naems matter, if close in sound, appearance or meaning. Similar names in related classes, distribtuion channels and customer matter too. You are affected by Common Law use (14 million), State Trademarks (500,000) and Federal Trademarks (2 million).Research is needed to make sure your trade name is legally available and it’s best to do this before: opening, expansion, incorporation or designing your logo. After all, why put in all that time, effort & money into a name this is already owned by a second party?Here are the 2 most important reasons research is a necessity:* It’s Your ResponsibilityIt is up to each business owner to ensure that the name they are using is not infringing upon another’s Federal or State trademark as well as any prior Common-Law rights. While governmental agencies (e.G.

County Clerks, Secretary of States, the US Patent and Trademark Office) will conduct their own research, it is quite limited in scope.For instance, in filing a Federal trademark, the US Patent and Trademark Office (hereafter referred to as the USPTO) does conduct a search of the Federal trademark registry, typically about 6-8 months into the process. However, this search does NOT include State trademarks or Common-Law databases, such as incorporations, fictitious names/DBAs, company directories, domain names, product announcements, etc.* It’s for Your BenefitIn an ever-expanding marketplace, the competition amongst businesses has become fiercer. Ovecroming the obstacle of reaching consumers is but one small step.
Now, once that first contact has been made, how you get a consumer to pruchase and/or come back to you is a larger hurdle. Brand recognition will be a major asset to you in this area.Let’s look at it from the point of view of most consumers’ shopping habits - several visits to different stores, sites, etc. in order to compare and conrtast.

Ensuring that your name is legally available means that customers will not confuse your products/services with a second party’s products/services and thus, guaranteeing that when customers look your business up by name, they are finding you and not your competitor.So, we’ve established that comprehensive research of your business name is a necsesity.
The next question is how to go about it?