Name Game Five!

You’ve brainstormed. You’ve found cliches. You’ve found related words and phrases. You’ve found HUNDREDS more words and phrases. You’ve plowed through homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, idioms and words that were just kinda like the others. Your brain is abuzz with fabulous ideas, catchy phrases and great names.

Here’s the buzz-kill — the giant killer of finding a great name. And we can blame it all on those friendly folks we call “domain name traders”. When you find that great name, you’ll go to a name registrar (or a registrar search tool like Better Whois) and find that your perfect name is likely taken. GRRRRRR! What’s worse, is it’s not taken by a like-minded entrepreneur, it’s been snagged by a sleaze-bag domain name trader that’s profiting off of your desire for that name. It’s either back to the drawing board OR cough up their exorbitant fees. Although it will feel like these leaches are sucking the life-blood out of you, if they’re only asking for a couple of hundred dollars, I hope you can see how buying the name is a lot easier (albeit more financially and ethically painful) than spending another few days in a search.

Well, for this post, that’s tip number one!: Don’t get married to a name until you find out that the “.com” and the “.net” are both available. Also, understand that this is definitely going to be a problem for you so you’ll want to pull out your extra thick skin … you’re gonna need it.

Tip two for this post: Next, check to see if there are any competing companies on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site. Although this is NOT legal advice, and you most definitely should seek advice from a qualified attorney who specializes in Intellectual Property law, it is possible to do a quickie check at the USPTO. If you go to the site and immediately find a conflict, you can again free up your brain and comfortably return to the drawing board without too much anguish. If you don’t find a conflict, you’ll want to have your attorney perform a “clearance search” to confirm that there aren’t any potential problems. Even then, your new, great name isn’t safe until the USPTO gives you the official “thumbs up” that you’re the new owner of the “mark”… which may take years!

To do a search at USPTO.gov;

Click on “How to Search” in the top nav.
Click “SEARCH trademarks now”
Click Free Form Search (Advanced Search)
In the “Search Term” box, type your new name IN QUOTES
Click “Submit Query”

I’ll be working with my IP attorney to try to give you mo’ bettah advice on this complex process in the future. If you’re looking for an IP attorney (especially if you live in the lovely Lakes Region of NH), feel free to contact Trademark Guru Mike Persson … and tell him I said “hi” (we’re working on his website as we speak).

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 am and is filed under Name Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.