IS JUSTICE GOING TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER?

Written by Barbara Jo Truchon


YOU HAVE A PROBLEM (And so could your business!)

Our courts are out of control. Instead of equal justice for all in many cases it seems justice goes torepparttar highest bidder,repparttar 119310 client who paysrepparttar 119311 highest legal bill. Here are three areas where many problems are found and steps to avoidrepparttar 119312 pitfalls.

THE STARTLING FACTS

Fully 50% of us will need an attorney inrepparttar 119313 next 12 months but MANY WILL NOT USE ONE DUE TO THE COST!

And being your own lawyer is not a do it yourself job.

Have you noticed that there are no "Attorney Depots"? Why? The laws are so complex that sometimes evenrepparttar 119314 lawyers can't make sense of them. And people love to sue. A NEW LAWSUIT IS FILED EVERY 3 SECONDS IN AMERICA! Even volunteers for charitable organizations have risk as volunteers!

THE PERSONAL ARENA

Ever buy a home? Did you read allrepparttar 119315 fine print inrepparttar 119316 5 or 6 inch STACK of papers they presented you or did you just sign, eyes glazed over, (about 100 times). Did you comfort yourself withrepparttar 119317 good old "It's what everyone HAS to sign"? Sure, you would love an attorney present but ...oops... costs too much. Or a car loan. Who can read all this stuff? Or how about when we get fired from our job, need a contract reviewed, sign a lease or get audited? Divorce is a double threat since there isrepparttar 119318 divorce itself and often child support or a property settlement. The list keeps going.

DBAs, TMs & .coms

Written by Elena Fawkner


"... I'd like to register my business name withrepparttar proper town authorities as a sole proprietorship. To protect myself and my business name from being copied and altered, do I have to register any and all variations ofrepparttar 119309 name? And is this done separately or is it done underrepparttar 119310 one application? ... Is this what I need to do in order to stop anyone from using a variation of my business name? And can my business name be trademarked along with its variations?"

This question (an extract from an email I received from a new subscriber duringrepparttar 119311 week) is a good illustration of how confusingrepparttar 119312 purpose of and difference between business names and trademarks can be for small business and others without ready access to an army of lawyers to lead them throughrepparttar 119313 maze. Add your domain name torepparttar 119314 mix and it becomes as clear as mud.

In this article, we'll look at what business names, trademarks and domain names are (and aren't), what you can and need to do to protect them and issues to think about when deciding upon what to choose for your business and domain names and whether trademark protection is appropriate (or even possible).

YOUR BUSINESS NAME

If you're going to conduct your business under a "fictitious" name, i.e., one other than its legal name, you will need to registerrepparttar 119315 fictitious name withrepparttar 119316 appropriate government agency in your state. This usually means your local county recorder's office but, depending on where you live, it may mean your state's Secretary of State Office. In countries other thanrepparttar 119317 U.S.,repparttar 119318 appropriate body may be some sort of government Department of Small Business.

So what's your "legal" name? If you're conducting business as a sole proprietorship, your legal name is your name, i.e. Fred Smith. If you're any sort of other legal entity such as a corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership etc.,repparttar 119319 legal name of your business isrepparttar 119320 name of your corporation, company, or limited partnership.

If you conduct business under your own name or that of your corporation, limited liability company or limited partnership, you do NOT need to register a fictitious business name withrepparttar 119321 State because you are not conducting business under a fictitious name, you are conducting it under your business's legal name.

=> Legal Purpose of a Fictitious Business Name

The reason you must register a fictitious business name to operate a business under a name other than your business's legal name is to protectrepparttar 119322 consuming public - those members ofrepparttar 119323 public who come in contact with your business - as well as other parties such as suppliers.

The purpose of registration is so that those who deal with your business can search for and identifyrepparttar 119324 person(s) "behind"repparttar 119325 name. As a fictitious business name is not a legal entity, it does not have contractual capacity (i.e. it cannot enter into contracts in its own name). A consumer wanting to do business with your business needs to be able to verify thatrepparttar 119326 person with whom he or she is contracting has authority to enter intorepparttar 119327 contract asrepparttar 119328 business entity. By searchingrepparttar 119329 fictitious business names register,repparttar 119330 consumer can find out who is "behind"repparttar 119331 business, as that isrepparttar 119332 party with whom he or she will be contracting (and, sometimes, suing ifrepparttar 119333 transaction goes bad!).

Example: Alfreda Smith conducts her florist business underrepparttar 119334 registered fictitious business name, "Blooming Right". Florist Supplies, Inc. wants to enter into a contract with Blooming Right to supply Blooming Right's stock of tulips. As Blooming Right is not a legal entity and only a DBA ("doing business as", another term for a fictitious business name), Blooming Right does not have legal capacity to enter intorepparttar 119335 supply contract with Florist Supplies, Inc.. (Florist Supplies, Inc., of course, being a corporation - as evidenced byrepparttar 119336 "Inc." - is a legal entity, and therefore has contractual capacity.) For this reason, Florist Supplies, Inc. will only be prepared to contract with Alfreda Smith,repparttar 119337 legal entity behind Blooming Right. Florist Supplies, Inc. identifiesrepparttar 119338 legal entity with contractual capacity by searchingrepparttar 119339 fictitious business names register. Accordingly,repparttar 119340 supply contract finally entered into will be between Florist Supplies, Inc. and Alfreda Smith, d/b/a Blooming Right.

You should also know that you won't be able to open a bank account for your business unless and until your fictitious business name is registered withrepparttar 119341 state.

Just because you've registered your business name in your county doesn't mean that someone else can't registerrepparttar 119342 same business name in another county. Registration is only designed to allow people who deal with your business to identify you asrepparttar 119343 person behind that particular business. It doesn't give you exclusive use of that name for all purposes in all areas. For this reason, if your business name is also your business's "brand", you should also register it as a trademark, if possible.

TRADEMARKS

As is evident fromrepparttar 119344 purpose of registering a fictitious business name, a business name is NOT a trademark and a registered business name will generally NOT operate to protectrepparttar 119345 name from use by others (except as an identical or deceptively similar business name inrepparttar 119346 same county). So how do you protect your business's "name" if it also identifies and distinguishesrepparttar 119347 source of your goods or services from those of your competitors'? The answer is federal trademark registration. (Although you can also register trademarks atrepparttar 119348 state level, state registration confers only limited benefits and should be considered only if federal registration is not possible).

=> What is a Trademark?

As suggested above, a trademark is either "a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishesrepparttar 119349 source ofrepparttar 119350 goods or services of one party from those of others." (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices ac/doc/basic/basic_facts.html) A service mark isrepparttar 119351 same thing except it relates torepparttar 119352 source of a service rather than a product.

=> Registration Not Required

A trademark (or service mark) does not need to be registered to attain status as a mark i.e. unregistered trademarks are recognized byrepparttar 119353 common law. If you have used a distinctive trademark (that you own) in commerce, then you probably have a common law trademark already.

But registration confers benefits not available if you rely only on your common law trademark rights, such asrepparttar 119354 presumption that you arerepparttar 119355 owner ofrepparttar 119356 mark forrepparttar 119357 goods and services specified inrepparttar 119358 registration andrepparttar 119359 entitlement to userepparttar 119360 mark nationwide.

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