Trademarking Your Business: Anyone Done It?

Shonuff

Shonuff

Mr. Poopybutthole
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So, the reason why this is coming up, is because a friend of mine in another city (but same industry), had a new company pop up with a like name. His name was AAA Service, the other guy's name was AAA Discount Service. Customers got confused, and as my friend had been in business for 15 years, the other company used his good name to rip people off. The new guy went around acting like he was the owner of the established company, and got people to pay him upfront for jobs. After all, people thought that he'd been around for awhile. The new guy stole about 100-150k in cash from customers (and then left town), and it ruined the reputation of my friend's business. His sales dropped 70%, and lost money for a year or two. He used to do 60-70k a month in service fees, but dropped to just 20-25k (which just covered his overhead). He had to re-brand the business that had been around for 15 years and used to have a sterling reputation, and it took three years to get back to where he used to be.

1- A trademark would have stopped this right? I know AAA is so commonplace, but for a business with a rarer name, I'm thinking it would be protected.

2- Other than paying a lawyer thousands of dollars to do this, would Legal Zoom do it? Or do you need expertise?

3- In my situation, we border two states, so I'm assuming I'd need two trademarks for each state, right?
 
Jalynfane

Jalynfane

Phank 2002
719
563
1. To be frank, I am not sure having a trademark would have stopped some one from going around posing as the other company and running off with money. It almost seems like a criminal act the police should investigate. With our Secretary of State, I can register any name I like as long it is not the exact same. I could even register as AAA Service, LLC or Inc if all he had was the AAA Service himself.

2. The web portal the US Gov has for Trademarks is very confusing last time I looked, maybe it is easy enough now to do yourself.

3. No clue
 
Shonuff

Shonuff

Mr. Poopybutthole
5,538
790
Jalynfane_sl said:
1. To be frank, I am not sure having a trademark would have stopped some one from going around posing as the other company and running off with money. It almost seems like a criminal act the police should investigate. With our Secretary of State, I can register any name I like as long it is not the exact same. I could even register as AAA Service, LLC or Inc if all he had was the AAA Service himself.

2. The web portal the US Gov has for Trademarks is very confusing last time I looked, maybe it is easy enough now to do yourself.

3. No clue
Click to expand...
As I understand it, regarding #1, you might get a name close to it, but could have a judge force them to change the name, if it's close to the trademarked name.

Where are resident Rerolled lawyers when you need them?
 
Tmac

Tmac

Adventurer
<Gold Donor>
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1. Surely he has cause to sue him for damages. So what if he leaves town? Hire a lawyer and sue the pants off of him. Literally. Why would he consider anything else? Especially with $150k of his own money sitting in the thief's pocket!

2. Legal Zoom incorporates businesses for 75%+ less than what it costs to have random lawyer X do it, so I'd look there first (I paid $500+ when they say they'll do it for $99...wtf). I'm assuming since they incorporate, they also offer services for similar things like trademarks.

3. Trademarks are expensive, so having to do it multiple times would suck.
 
opiate82

opiate82

Bronze Squire
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I did some looking into trademarking as well. Information I have found is very convoluted. From what I understand you don't have to register your trademark at all. Simply throwing a (TM) at the end of your name/whatever stakes your claim to your trademark. However I think it is much easier to legally protect your trademark if you do register it. When you do register it you get nation-wide protection. But also I believe if you are fighting another business over your TM rights, you must prove that business is operating in your expected trade area. For example, I open up "Opiate82's Pizza" in Seattle and someone else opens "Opiates Pizzeria" in New York odds are the courts will say that our businesses aren't operating in the same trade area and thus our trademarks aren't in conflict.

According to this WSJ article, if you are just trying to protect your company name, the process is pretty straight forward and can be done in as little as 90 minutes w/o a lawyer. Cost is between $275-$325.
http://guides.wsj.com/small-business...-company-name/

Also, since you are responsible for policing and protecting your trademark, I'm guessing in your buddies situation, by the time any legal action started going down the grifter would have pulled off his scam and skipped town already anyways. Sucks that any goodwill and/or community connections he may have made were so easily soiled.
 
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