I want to make sure I get ownership for my old biz name.

I am not planning on starting up again right now, but think I will on a local level in the next couple years.

How do I go about doing this? Can someone who has done this help me out?

Thanks
Michelle

bumping 4 u, cause i wanna know too!:)

:bounce:

Anyone???

Michelle

I'm actually in the process of trademarking our business name. I hired a lawyer who did a search (appx $200) of the name in fedral, state and local listings, coming up with similar names I should be aware of, and his recommendations etc.

The actual application fee from USPTO is $335, and his retainer fee is $450. He helped me fill out the application and he took the application to the USPTO office (his office is actually in VA), and he follows up on it regularly.

It takes about a year for the application to be approved, and hopefully we will soon have an (R) next to our name instead of a (TM)

I unfortunately had the experience of having to change my name, restructure etc because I was accused of trademark violations with our initial business name...so I learned the hard way, I suppose.

You can apply for the application on your own, of course...so you don't have to pay a retainer fee, but I just chose not to go this route.

HTH!

FWIW, here are some sites that deal with it-- but I don't know how worthwhile they are. They're just from google.

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/trademark/trademark.html#para1


http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/index.cfm/catID/804B85E3-9224-47A9-A7E6B5BD92AACD48


http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/trademark_law/