Naming my company

Hi, I have a question regarding naming my company. I read in a book that the best way to name your company is to go with Prestigious Lawns instead of Bobs grass cutting. Ok I understand that makes sense. But I can find just about every name I am thinking of in the phone book. If I come up with a name thats not in the area is there a way I can protect it so no one else can use it? Or vise versa. If someone has the name say in Arizona and I live in Ohio does it matter. How dose naming a company work? Tom

[Steve W]

Lawn care business tips

Hi, I have a question regarding naming my company. I read in a book that the best way to name your company is to go with Prestigious Lawns instead of Bobs grass cutting. Ok I understand that makes sense. But I can find just about every name I am thinking of in the phone book. If I come up with a name thats not in the area is there a way I can protect it so no one else can use it? Or vise versa. If someone has the name say in Arizona and I live in Ohio does it matter. How dose naming a company work? Yes, you can go thru all that mmbo jumbo and hAVE your name copywrite. BUT that will cost you time and money. IF YOU THINK you will be going Nationwide then it would be worth it. But most of the time a small bizz will not use a name of another in the same area. Steve W

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I already name my company Luxury Lawns I just found another guy called Luxury lawns but he is on the otherside of town. He is about 45 minutes from me. We don't compete in the same area but can he make me change my name?

[Steve W]

All I can say about that is WHOEVER HAS THE LICENSE! in that area has the right of way and if he has a copyright, then yes he can make you change.It seems to me someone was not up to date with the LCOs in the that area.
NOT TO BE RUDE! but that is what it sounds like to me.

Ok what is the license in the area? I don't know what the LCO is? And what defines the area? Also what if he has the license but no copyright. Can you explain further?

[swstout]

Originally Posted by tomcat172002

Hi,

I have a question regarding naming my company. I read in a book that the best way to name your company is to go with Prestigious Lawns instead of Bobs grass cutting. Ok I understand that makes sense. But I can find just about every name I am thinking of in the phone book. If I come up with a name thats not in the area is there a way I can protect it so no one else can use it? Or vise versa. If someone has the name say in Arizona and I live in Ohio does it matter. How dose naming a company work?

Tom

　
　
Prestigious

Here are suggestions for prestigious from the thesaurus. Sometimes a synonym is better than the word!

Important
Impressive
High-status
Prominent
Esteemed
Celebrated
Exalted
Influential
Major
Imposing
Inspiring
Striking
Remarkable
Notable
Extraordinary
Amazing
Incredible

Steve

[turfmaster]

Originally Posted by tomcat172002

Ok what is the license in the area? I don't know what the LCO is? And what defines the area? Also what if he has the license but no copyright. Can you explain further?

Tom,
Go online to your states website and see if the guy's got the name registered.

[Steve W]

tHANK yALL! mY uNCLE JIM BEAM is here tonite and kinda making me slow.

[Steve]

Ok what is the license in the area? I don't know what the LCO is? And what defines the area? Also what if he has the license but no copyright. Can you explain further?

Did you register your business with your county? Did they? Or did you register with the state?

This could be a county area issue or it could be a statewide issue. Potentially even a nationwide issue.

Ultimately I think it comes down to who had the name first. It doesn't even have to be the same. If it is similar, the person who had it first can probably force the other to stop using the name.

The longer you are in business with your name, the more this becomes a problem if someone was using it before you started.

[jasonw]

I just recently did some work in this area, it was for a utility and design patent but we went over copyrights and what not to. Its my understanding that the name can be copywriten in each state meaning if bob copyrights bobs law service in Ohio you can copyright it in California and have no problem. If however you go nation wide you will NOT be able to copywrite your name in Ohio because Bob already did. You need to be careful when choosing because you can not copyright a thing. For example if you name your company "Lawn mowers or Truck Part" those are material things and can not be laid claim to. You can however copyright Bobs lawn mowers or Bobs truck parts as that is a name and not a thing. There are tens of thousands of laws on copyrights, trademarks, patents exc exc. Thats why lawyers get paid the big bucks but the associate I was working with saved a lot of money by doing patent searches on his own. Not something I would want to do but he never ran into problems doing it solo. Once he had the search done and was sure he was good to go he would then goto the patent attorney for the filing.