QUESTION.
I am a starting a Web-based business and I am seeking help in trademarking my new company name. Also, I formed a corporation and obtained a Tax ID a few years ago, under a different name. However, I did not do anything with it. Is this still valid? Can I just add my new company name to it and continue to use the tax ID #? If so, how do I go about doing that?
ANSWER.
To trademark a name you need to use it for a bit before you can apply for trademark protection. Whenever you use your company name you can put “TM” after it and you are protected. To learn more about trademark protection you can visit the following site. See http://www.uspto.gov/. As a SCORE counselor I’m not going to get into the specifics of applying for a trademark because to do so is generally considered the practice of law. I don’t do that in my SCORE capacity.
With regard to your existing corporation, you can use it for your new company. You will need to file a fictitious name registration in your state in the same place you filed your corporate papers. The owner of the fictitious name should be your corporation. That way your corporation will be viewed as “doing business as” the ficititious name.
I hope my comments are helpful to you. Good luck! Regards, -Jeff
Jeff Lippincott
SCORE.org Counselor
Princeton, NJ
scoreprinceton @ aol.com
www.scoreprinceton.org
www.jlippin.com
