Trademarks

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

Does any one on here have their business name trademarked? It seems someone ripped off our name. Any one know the filing cost if you file all the paperwork yourself?

AtlanticWBConst

I have had this conversation with a lawyer that specializes in business law. Basically, he is our company lawyer, but we have not yet had to hire him for any actual issues (thank goodness).
He told me that if and when you incorporate, your company name is protected in your state that you registered the corporation in.
You would need to trademark your name or other business related 'items' if you wanted to be protected beyond your state of registration. My lawyer quoted me a price of about $600.00 per trademark registration....

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HUDSONVALLEYEXT

We are incorporated in NY I was looking through the yellow pages and saw "hudson valley stucco & exteriors inc." we are "hudson valley exteriors inc" I looked in the NYS corporate database and there corporation does not even exist. We have been incorperated since 2005 but we have had our name on a county level since 99. I doubt they had theirs before we did. I feel like they are stealing our name.

AtlanticWBConst

We just went thru this last summer. Thus the reason I consulted our lawyer. Some goof were using our name...I found a business card at a supply warehouse.

a.) Consulted lawyer.

b.) Made an anonymos (sp) phone call acting like an interested person and drilled them for information. Asked them if they were the same company (as us). They said no. I asked them if they had ever heard of 'our company'. They said yes....(Did this all very casually so as to get accurate information)

c.) I re-consulted lawyer, he said, yes, they are infringing.

d.) Called them back a day later and told them that they are infringing on our trademark. If they didn't cease we would have no choice but to take them to court. Scared the crap out of them. Stopped right away. Called me back that same day and told me that they had already started the process of changing their name.
Checked back 2 weeks later..allset.
FWIW -these were just a couple of foriegn guys trying to start up their business....they had only starting using it about several months earlier.

(I still may trademark our Co. name beyond local state registration)

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HUDSONVALLEYEXT

What name were they using?

travish

seems like an open and shut case, call them and tell them to stop using your name. You're incorporated and that gives you protection rights and they're in the same state.

Up here to get incorporated you need a NUANS search (I'm sure you have something similar) to make sure no one has a name thats similar to yours already registered. I'd say his name is plenty close enough to yours to cause confusion, give them a call and say they can't use it. If they resist call an attorney