sorta OT: company names

[Greg Rundlett]

Erik,

If you're in Mass, but not incorporated, then you are a sole proprietor
"doing business as" a company.  You could hire an attorney, to file the
articles of incorporation, and do a trademark search and whatnot, but that
will cost on the order of $1,000+. If you do not want to hire an attorney,
you could try filing articles of incorporation yourself with the Secretary
of State's Office, and I think the application is maybe $200.  If you do
 not want to incorporate at all, but operate a business (consulting, etc.)
 that is not in your natural name, then you are supposed to register your
 company with the local city/town hall.  That option costs about $20/year.  
These various types of filings are what give you legitimacy, and start to 
copyright your use of a particular name if I'm not mistaken.  Depending on 
what this other company did or does, there is even room for two companies 
to have the same name or overlapping trademarks - if they are in different 
fields.  For example, MAC Enterprises can't be sued for trademark 
infringement by Apple Computer if MAC Enterprises is a landscaping business 
run by Michael And Charlie

I'm sorry that I don't have better personal advice to give....but I've
started and putoff incorporating a couple times without actually doing it
yet.  Plus, I'm not an attorney obviously, so you'll have to confirm 
anything I say.  Still, I do have some good resources bookmarked at my 
website at
http://freephile.com/bookmarker/search.php3  Do a search with
subcategory.name = 'business' .  The SBA.gov site is a good one for 
starters, as is
www.buzgate.org.

All of this is just my personal experience as a 'sole proprietor' who has
entertained the idea of incorporating a few times, but so far has always
been to pressed to do other things.

Of course, if you end up seeking good legal counsel, there are a few links 
within my bookmark collection noted above to some of the well-know 
internet/technology attorneys.

hth,

Greg Rundlett
Sr. Internet Systems Architect
FREePHILE.com
978-423-8172
greg at freephile.com
aim: freephile

----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik Price" <erikprice at mac.com>
To: <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 1:39 PM
Subject: sorta OT: company names

> Hi,
>
> This question isn't really related to Linux or Unix specifically, but
> I'll ask anyway since I know there are some experienced developers on
> this list.
>
> I am writing a small chunk of software (in Java) that I intend to
> release on Freshmeat when I have a beta.  I don't have a "company" name
> registered in whatever organization keeps track of company names, but
> I'd like to use one (even though it's just me hacking in my spare time,
> not-for-profit).  This is especially significant given that I would use
> the name in the software package name, eg
> "com.MyCompany.MyApplicationPackage".  However, the name that I want to
> use was taken by another company about 7 years ago, but I am fairly
> certain it longer exists -- there are only 19 hits on Google in
> reference to the name, and of those, only a few actually related to the
> company.  They do not have a web site, nor can I find any contact
> information about them.  A Wired article indicates that this company
> was based out of someone's apartment in New York, whereas I live in
> Mass.
>
> I'm wondering if it's legal to just appropriate the name for my own
> use.  I'd guess not, but then I wonder how many diners out there are
> named "Classic Diner" or what have you.  Furthermore, I have the domain
> name already.  What are the (legal) steps to take so that you can put
> "Copyright 2002 My Company" on your software?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts,
>
>
> Erik
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Erik Price                                   (zombies roam)
>
> email: erikprice at mac.com
> jabber: erikprice at jabber.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnhlug-discuss mailing list
> gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Greg Rundlett
Sr. Internet Systems Architect
FREePHILE
"Free Software on Linux"
greg at freephile.com
(978) 423-8172