Starting a new business 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 that is neglected by many is ensuring that the name of the business is truly available.

There are 16+ million trade names in use in the United States. Similar names matter, if close in sound, appearance or meaning. Similar names in related classes, distribution 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 that is already owned by another party?

Here are the 2 most important reasons research is a necessity:

It's Your Responsibility?

It 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 some 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 Benefit

In an ever-expanding marketplace, the competition amongst businesses has become fiercer. Overcoming the obstacle of reaching consumers is but one small step. Now, once that first contact has been made, how you get a consumer to purchase 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 contrast. Ensuring that your name is legally available means that customers will not confuse your products/services with another 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 necessity. The next question is how to go about it?

It's going to be near impossible to search the name comprehensively on the web but there are free sources you can look into & should before hiring TradeMark Express. Preliminary research is a great place to start but keep in mind that any free resource available online is merely scratching the surface.

Free preliminary sources:

USPTO - Preliminary Search of Federal trademarks. Click the Search button in the right hand column.

Go to your state's Secretary of State page to see if they have a searchable database of business names.

Hoover's

ThomasNet - Must register (free) to search their database

Domain Name Search

Yellow Pages -- Leave the location box blank & you'll be able to search nationwide.

Again, please be aware that these are preliminary sources and should no way be counted on as comprehensive. Just because the name clears these stages, does NOT mean that it's legally available. Besides missing important databases, these engines do not search intelligently - what you put in is what it spits out. Don't forget that SAM has to be adhered to when it comes to trademarks.

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