trademarking your company name

[huggytree]

my company name is also the name of a nearby City and also the County i live in...i choose a generic name

various competitors keep trying to use names similar to mine....the last one was my same website name but with .net at the end...when you clicked on it it actually said my company name across the top of his website....his actual company name was in small type at the bottom of his website. He was actually using my exact name.......i wrote about it on several business forums and he went away quickly before i looked into legal advice.....his website no longer exists....it seemed to change within a week of me writing about it and then a few months later was gone...i get Google alerts anytime someone types in my company name and i assume he saw i was writing about him and talking about legal action

now there's a guy who is using 20 different names for his company...basically every city and then the word plumbing....he's in the phone book 20x and has 20 websites....since my company name is one of the cities he wants he just added the name 'SERVICE'....at first i didnt care, but now he's actually ahead of me on one of the yahoo searches i did....he's 2nd-4th on all the other searches....its like he's taking my name and there's nothing i can do about it....if a customer refers me and tells someone to look me up on the internet they may get him.....if he gets a bad rep. it may rub off on me since the names are so close.......and its not his real company name....he's just calling himself 20 different names

it bugs the heck out of me that someone can take my company name and add a little something onto the end and its legal.....

i called my lawyer today to find out if there's anything i can do....he said it may even be legal for someone to take my name and change the word plumbing to plumber and it could be legal...he recommended trying to copyright my name and logo....which i will be doing tonight..its $15 on the state of WI website.....sounds like i may not be able to copy right it since its such a generic name...

just wanted to warn all of you to copyright your names....for $15 its worth it....you never know who will try to steal your name from you
also buy .net, .org versions of your domain name....

[cbscreative]

Dave (huggy), this may not be what you want to hear, but I think it's what you need to hear. Because you chose a city/county name for your business, it's doubtful you can trademark it (the best answer is up to a trademark attorney though). However, these competitors trying to infringe on you are more likely just trying to target the area moreso than directing their efforts at you personally. This is understandable and should be expected due to the nature of your profession.

In reality, the success they've had at ranking this way is the result of you not dominating the ranking yourself. With a company name, domain name (if you have the matching domain), a well optimized site, and a good ranking strategy, you would have an advantage that it would be hard for them to take from you. The solution is for you to take charge and not leave them an easy opportunity.

Implementing this solution will require some serious effort and/or the services of a qualified professional, but if you stay one step ahead of them, you'll hardly have to concern yourself with them potentially confusing your target market.

[nealrm]

Huggytree, you can't copyright a business name you have to trademark it. Unfortunately, a generic city + trade trademark will be rejected as a US trademark. (I tried, it didn't work) You can use the TM marking on your name to indicate a local trademark. But I'm not sure how much protection that will give you.

[huggytree]

what i am considering doing to be a a-hole is use ADwords and use HIS company name and add SERVICE at the end of it...maybe people would mix up me and his company.....i dont feel this guy is directly going after me, but i do think his name is too similar.....there will be mixups and its going to hurt me to some degree ...when he had a low ranking i didnt care, but now that he's listed next to me i care a lot

i chose a great name, but i always knew it had a downside also...and this is it....too generic....i do think i had a legal case against the guy who used my actual name at the title of his website....but just by adding the word 'service' after my name makes it legal for him...

the trademarking can be done through the State of WI website and im still going to try to do it....im going to at least trade mark my logo since its only $15

[Business Attorney]

Unless there is a conflicting mark, you should be abel to get a federal trademark on the logo if you wanted one. Of course, that does not help with the fact that your company name is simply a location and a general description of the business.

The guy is not "taking your name" - he is describing what he does and where he does it. You chose a very generic name for the upside but you have to accept the downside. I don't understand why you get so upset when someone uses your generic term on their website. I can't imagine someone picking a name "Chicago Plumbing" and then getting irritated when someone uses the exact phrase, in a domain name or otherwise. There are thousands of Chicago plumbers and no one of them may exclude all the others from describing what they do and where they do it.

By the way, state trademarks don't really offer much, if any, legal protection for the name, but for $15 it probably makes sense to go ahead and file.

[billbenson]

That's why you should register all similar domain names. At $10 per year its not that much money for the protection you get.

[nealrm]

Federal trademarks cannot be generic in nature. That applies to city names followed by a type of service. So company names like St Louis Auto Sales or Boston Cabs will be rejected.

[huggytree]

i sent in both trade marks to the state of WI (logo & company name)

we will see what happens

[LFinkle]

I am not an attorney so I may be incorrect but I don't believe you can copyright a company name, only trademark it. That process has to go through the US Patent and Trademark office and it can take 6 months or more. Your name can only be trademarked IF there isn't another company using the same name in the same industry. The purpose is to avoid confusion in the marketplace. There could be a pharaceutical company with exactly the same name that is trademarked and that would be acceptable because there would not be confusion in the marketplace about what each of your companies do. You can go to the US Patent and Trademark website to find out more and even handle the process yourself

One recommendation I would make is that whatever url you secure for your company you secure others that are similar. So if your's is .com, get the .net and anything else that is close. Many urls are only $10 a year and you can to to 1and1.com and I think they are like $2.00.

[huggytree]

Got my state of wi trademark certificates today in the mail

my company name and logo are both officially trademarked in the state of wi

i have no idea what the difference between wi and the usa are? I assume the usa trademark protects me nationally (which i really dont need)

next time i see someone using my exact name im going after them....it doesnt help my current situation since the company in question isnt using the exact name, but in the past where they did id send them a legal letter immediately or a phone call