Company Name Situation

[ken.c]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? = California

Hello,

I am interested in starting up a small media firm (web design, hosting, print etc). I reside in Los Angeles, California.

I was very interested in a company name and negotiated the purchase of the domain, actually both .com and .net (wasn't cheap either). So that's all set.

Let's say company is called EXAMPLE MEDIA.

Not too long ago I found that EXAMPLE MEDIA GROUP (same as my name but ends with group) was registered in my state in 2008 as a limited liability company. After much research it appears they are a publishing company, so similar to media.

Now I am very concerned that I won't be able to register the company and do business legally:

1. Would registration be an issue if a company name is the same except for less a word?

2. If there is nothing I can do to register legally, would I be able to register the name in another state somehow and legally operate the business?

As a note the name before media is not a special name like Google, it is like a common word like a type of fruit, or type of tree, etc. I don't think such things can be trademarked? Also the .com domain I acquired is registered from 1999 (it was used by a defunct business and has been inactive for a number of years). The other company's website was registered back in 2009 and is under construction apparently. It is the same as mine but ends with group again.

I don't know if any of that matters, but I'm really confused about what to do now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Ken

[FlyingRon]

You've got several issues here.

One is whether you can incorporate (or register the DBA) under a name already in use in the state, I'm not up enough on California corporate law to tell you.

Second issue, if you use that name as a mark, can it be considered to infringe on the other companies use? Can't tell. Are they using their name as a trademark? Are you in the same business so as to create a possibility of confusion. Are you diluting their mark?

Third issue, your domains. Since you currently have no trademark and no incorporated company, you're at high risk if the other company wants to invoke a complaint that will take the domains from you without compensation.
Having a trademark or incorporated company with the name will help your situation here.

[ken.c]

Thank you for the reply.

Wow, I didn't know it would be possible to take the domains from me without compensation. The worst case scenario in my mind was that I would just recover the money paid for the domains from them in an exchange, lose the name and move on.

I haven't registered it as a trademark, I was planning to do all the "legal" stuff later on. Mistake going to learn from I suppose.

The other company does not have the name registered as a trademark either. But they were recently registered as a limited liability company.

I'm not sure if they would be considered doing the same business, they are more of a book/magazine publishing start up from what I gathered whereas the business I'm planning to do is more web based.

If I manage to successfully trade mark the name, and assuming I won't be able to register it as a LLC in my state, any chance I can have it registered in another state?

I'm not asking to do anything illegally, I just want to start this business up legally and operate it legally and focus on the work, not all these name issues.

Thanks again!

[FlyingRon]

You establish rights to a mark by using it in commerce, registration comes afterward.

Are either of you using the name as a trademark?

What is the subject matter of the book or web site. For instance, it's certainly going to be confusing to have "MOTORBOAT MEDIA" for books on boats and "MOTORBOAT MEDIA GROUP" for a website.

Trademarks have nothing to do with the ability to register corporate names. The state corporation commission or whatever California calls it will have restrictions on corporate name distribution. Won't matter whether you have mark rights or not to them, even if you don't compete.