Do your customers ask for your business by name? If so, you know that choosing a name is more complicated than selecting a catchy moniker. That's because a good name not only describes your business; it also sells it. Protect your business identity and steer clear of the pitfalls of name infringement, including:

1. Loss of name recognition.
2. Declining profits.
3. Customer confusion.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose an original name

Browse registered trademarks and Web sites to see if your chosen name is available; be careful not to infringe upon another business' name rights in the quest to establish your own.

I recommend: Access the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) by hitting the "search" button under "Trademark Electronic Business Center". This allows you to browse registered trademarks online. Or, search for similarly named businesses in your area with Qwest's online phonebook, Dex.

Register your trade name

If you want to do business under a name other than your own, you must register a fictitious business name, known as a DBA (Doing Business As), with your state or county. Registering a DBA protects your name in your state, but provides little or no national protection.

I recommend: Consider hiring a legal filing service, such as BizFilings or MyCorporation.com, to register your DBA for you in the necessary jurisdictions.

Register your domain name

Protect your company name by purchasing relevant Internet domains, including any extensions of your standard homepage — .net, .org, .us and .biz — and any variations on it, including misspellings.

I recommend: Search for available domains — and register yours — at Whois.com, Register.com or GoDaddy.com.

Pursue a federal trademark or service mark

Purchasing a federal trademark or service mark grants you maximum protection nationwide. Keep in mind that you generally cannot trademark a company name unless it is used to identify goods or services.

I recommend: Find out if your business name is eligible for federal trademark registration by reviewing the United States Patent and Trademark Office's "Basic Facts About Trademarks."

Protect your name online

If someone has registered a domain name that violates your name rights, you can submit a written argument claiming legal rights to the domain.

I recommend: Submit complaints regarding domain name use to an arbitrator according to the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policies set forth by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Enforce your name rights

Watch the marketplace — via phonebook listings, Web sites and word of mouth — for potential violation of your name rights and notify possible offenders if they're improperly using your registered name or mark.

I recommend: Monitor trademark infringement with CyberAlert's Trademark Infringement Monitoring Service, or resolve it with trademark protection services from The Trademark Company.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Indicate ownership of your business name with a ® if it's registered as a federal trademark, a ™ if it's an unregistered trademark and a ^SM if it's an unregistered service mark.
• •  If you plan on incorporating, register your name with your state's secretary of state. Doing so allows you to legally use it, but will not give you exclusive rights to it, except when using it with your corporate designation — Inc., or Ltd., for example.
• •  Securing exclusive rights to your business name depends not on registration, but on use.
• •  Be able to prove 'first-use' by keeping records that document the date you began using your business name.
• •  If you do business abroad, you should also register your business name there.