Obviously you’ll need a business name. It’s useful to select a name fairly early so you can begin building visibility of your corporate identity. Of course, another challenging task can be finding an Internet web address that isn’t taken.
Trademark Check
Check with the Patent and Trademark office to make sure your company name doesn’t violate an existing trademark.
Once you select a name, trademark it. It’s no fun having to change the companies name because someone beat you to the trademark office; it causes a fair amount of confusion.
Trademark Application
You can probably fill out the trademark application yourself — it’s not that hard. If the trademark gets approved, then that’s great – you’re done.
But – if the Patent and Trademark Office denies the trademark because they think it might get confused with some other trademark, you definitely need an Intellectual Property attorney who knows how to work with the Patent and Trademark Office. If there’s a problem, it’s frequently with a similar usage in a totally unrelated industry. An attorney knows how to work with the government to get around that problem. Of course, the problem might be legitimate — you’re requested trademark might be too close to an existing trademark in your industry (or a related industry). If so, that’s better to know sooner than later!