Please learn from my mistake. Pick out several names and research them everywhere - US and abroad. I put a lot of blood, sweat in tears into building a website, not liking it, contracting it out to someone else and mulling over a name and not doing the diligence I thought I had to checking if the name was taken. My hosting company allowed me to register the name.

However less than month later, Fatcow suspended my site due to phishing complaints. After checking with another VA we found with several VAs firms (and I mean several - at least ten) whose company name was similiar to mine. The conclusion we came to was one complained to Fatcow and they suspended my account.

I now have to revamp , rename and rebrand my business and my site (which wasn't finished, by the way) which temporarily stops all opportunities - and I am literally just getting started. In short I have to start over.

Please do not allow this to happen to you. Do your due diligence. Do a PTO check, Business.com. Spend the time now. It will be more work later.

Caroline

Hi, Caroline, so sorry to hear you're having so much difficulty!

I've been in business for 14 years and never checked my business name online. Didn't know I should or even how. Still don't, other than just searching in Google for it to see what comes up. The only thing I did was pick a name (well, my husband picked it) and get a license with my county. The only criteria for the name was that there wasn't another business with the same name in my county.

What is PTO and what is business.com for? I went to the site, and still couldn't figure out what to do there in relation to checking out a company name.

Oh, I've only had my domain name for five years and my website for not quite one year.

Thanks!

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Pam Deyerle - Transcriptionist in the Richmond, Virginia area
The Perfect Word Transcription Services

Patent Trademark Office (PTO) Business.com also lists business names. Just places for new business owners to check before registering their names, hosting and buying their domains etc. Since you've been in business for a while, you don't have anything to worry about. Rather new business owner who have names close or similiar to yours would have to be concerned.

Caroline,

Sorry to hear about all your hard work for not. This is a great reminder to those just beginning when choosing a name there are many steps to take place. And remember just because a URL may be available and you are allowed to register it does not mean that there is not another out there with the business name.

Good luck to you as you revamp.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Wow! That sounds horrible. Sorry that happened to you. Thanks for sharing that great advise. I always like to google everything to see what comes up, just for curiosity.

Thanks again!

So sorry you had such problems! As a newbee, now I have a question about this. I registered my domain name AND search my state's governnment business names search. My company name didn't show up so I THOUGHT I was ok, but reading this now I'm not sure. I don't find any hits when I Google search, but am I missing something. Is there somewhere else I need to be searching?

Susan

Sorry you had to go through that. Thanks for the warning.

Evelyn

This is alittle concerning. I searched through my home state for other businesses with this name, and did the internet address / keyword search- but did not check for patents or trademarks.

I went on to business.com but was not able to locate a clear link that would search this for me. Can anyone post it or give more detail as to how to check this?

Start by going to The US Trademark website search portal here. Click on “Search Marks”, #2 in the middle blue box.

Now click on “New User Form Search (Basic)”


Enter your Company Name idea in the “search term” box and, using the drop-downs, make sure you choose “ALL” and “All search terms (AND)”. Then Click “Submit Query”.

 
If your company name shows up, just click on it in the word mark column to see the results.

You also want to check with your local county clerk’s office to make sure no one in your area is using the name. You can look up the number to call on your county website.

~C

PS-
I learned how to do all this when my Company name was challenged by someone in Germany who had "Vital Office" trademarked here in the US.
After much searching & researching he had no basis to request I change my name. Long story short- I was lucky.
If I had done all this in the beginning I would've went for another name altogether.

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~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

Thank you so much! I'm going to do those searches right now.