Reg­is­ter­ing your company name

Selecting the right company name is crucial for any business startup. If the name has strong branding potential—gaining recog­ni­tion quickly and conveying quality—it’s es­pe­cial­ly important to safeguard it. However, even if it’s simply to secure exclusive rights to your company name, pro­tec­tion is essential. This can be done by reg­is­ter­ing it in the com­mer­cial register or as a trademark, each providing different levels of pro­tec­tion.

Why should you protect your company name?

Pro­tect­ing your company name is essential to secure the ex­clu­siv­i­ty of your business name and avoid legal disputes. A protected name grants you exclusive usage rights and strength­ens your brand in the long run. The cost of pro­tect­ing your company name depends on whether you register it in the com­mer­cial register or protect it as a trademark. In both cases, the in­vest­ment is worth­while to safeguard your business name from unau­tho­rized use.

How to register a company name

Before launching your business, one of the first steps is to register your company name. If you’re starting a business as a sole pro­pri­etor or part­ner­ship and you want to use a name other than your personal name, you’ll need to file for a DBA (Doing Business As). This is es­sen­tial­ly your business name for legal purposes, so choose one that reflects your company’s core mission or services. It’s also a good idea to check if the cor­re­spond­ing domain name is available for your website. If you already own a cor­po­ra­tion or LLC and plan to do business under a different name, you’ll also need to file a DBA for that name.

Once you’ve chosen your DBA, you’ll need to register it with the Secretary of State in your state, either online or in person. The reg­is­tra­tion fee and the duration of the reg­is­tra­tion can vary by state. Typically, the fee ranges from $10 to $100, and the reg­is­tra­tion lasts for 5 years in most cases, though some states may offer longer periods (like 10 years). Check your state’s specific rules and fees at the Secretary of State website.

Reg­is­ter­ing a business name with the state does not grant you exclusive rights to the name. To protect your name from others using it, you’ll need to register a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This ensures that no one else can legally use your business name at the national level.

How to register a trademark

The term “trademark” includes both a tra­di­tion­al trademark (for goods) and a service mark (for services). These typically consist of names, slogans, logos, designs, or symbols that dis­tin­guish your goods or services from those of com­peti­tors. This means that you can trademark the same company name you’ve reg­is­tered, and you also have the option to select a slogan, an image, or the name of a popular product or service your company offers. Trade­marks serve as in­di­ca­tors of in­tel­lec­tu­al property and can last as long as the owner continues to use them in commerce.

Reg­is­ter­ing a trademark es­tab­lish­es federal rights for your company. These rights grant the exclusive ability to use the trademark (with its cor­re­spond­ing goods and services) na­tion­wide, along with a legal pre­sump­tion of ownership. However, these rights can be chal­lenged if someone else proves that their usage predates yours. This is why extensive research is critical before applying.

Federal trademark reg­is­tra­tion in the USA is handled by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Their website provides trademark guide­lines, a search tool, and a fee guide. The typical cost for a federal trademark ap­pli­ca­tion is around $250 to $350, depending on the type of ap­pli­ca­tion. State trade­marks can be more af­ford­able but offer more limited pro­tec­tion and do not grant na­tion­wide rights. You can find more in­for­ma­tion about state trade­marks by con­tact­ing your local Secretary of State.

Once your trademark is accepted, it will be of­fi­cial­ly listed on the USPTO website, published in their Official Gazette (OG), and you will receive a reg­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, your trademark will be eligible to use the “®” symbol, which signifies na­tion­wide ex­clu­siv­i­ty and quality. Your reg­is­tra­tion provides legal pro­tec­tion against anyone trying to register a trademark that is “con­fus­ing­ly similar” to yours. Fur­ther­more, you can record your trademark with U.S. Customs and Border Pro­tec­tion (CBP), which can help prevent the im­por­ta­tion of in­fring­ing or coun­ter­feit goods. Finally, reg­is­ter­ing your trademark at the federal level also opens the door to in­ter­na­tion­al trademark pro­tec­tion.

Is my trademark protected in a foreign country?

Simply put, a U.S. Trademark Reg­is­tra­tion does not protect your trademark in a foreign country. Trade­marks are ter­ri­to­r­i­al, meaning that they must be reg­is­tered in each country where you wish to seek pro­tec­tion.

However, if you have a trademark that is either reg­is­tered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or have an ongoing ap­pli­ca­tion with them, you may be able to extend your pro­tec­tion in­ter­na­tion­al­ly through the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Protocol allows U.S. trademark holders to file for trademark pro­tec­tion in any of the member countries by filing a single “In­ter­na­tion­al Ap­pli­ca­tion” through the USPTO.

As of 2025, there are 125 members of the Madrid Union, covering 130 countries. This means your U.S. trademark reg­is­tra­tion can be extended to any of these countries, giving you pro­tec­tion in multiple regions with a single ap­pli­ca­tion.

For more in­for­ma­tion on the Madrid Protocol, you can visit the official WIPO page on Madrid Protocol.

Can all names be trade­marked?

If you’re in the donut-making business, you might have come up with the great idea of trying to trademark “donuts” as your company name or even attempt to secure donuts.com for yourself. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, you likely won’t have any luck, as the law does not allow a company to claim a generic term as its pro­pri­etary mark. Terms like “chairs,” “dogs,” “computers,” etc., are generic and cannot be trade­marked because they are commonly used to describe products or services. Everyone has the right to use these terms to describe their goods or services, which is why they can’t be exclusive to one business.

A well-known case involves Hotels.com. The company believed it could trademark the name, thinking that the “.com” suffix would remove the generic nature of the term. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected their ap­pli­ca­tion, ruling that adding the suffix did not change the gener­ic­ness of the term “hotels.” The addition of “.com” did not suf­fi­cient­ly dis­tin­guish the term from its general use.

Even names that are similar to generic terms can be prob­lem­at­ic. For example, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected the trademark ap­pli­ca­tion for the name “Lektronic,” arguing that the term was too close to “elec­tron­ic,” a widely used term in the industry.

An in­ter­est­ing example is Apple Inc., which suc­cess­ful­ly conducts business under its trade­marked name “Apple.” This is possible because Apple operates in the tech­nol­o­gy and software sectors, not in the food industry. While “apple” is a generic term in the food sector, it is dis­tinc­tive and non-generic in the context of tech­nol­o­gy products, allowing Apple Inc. to secure its trademark.

Trade­marks that have become generic and gener­i­cized

Even though you may have legally protected a trademark, it doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean it will be protected forever. In rare cases, trade­marks that have become gener­i­cized lose their legal pro­tec­tion. When this happens, the trademark becomes a generic term used to describe all similar products, re­gard­less of the man­u­fac­tur­er. This is often referred to as “gene­r­i­cide.”

For example, Thermos was once a trademark held by Thermos GmbH, but over time, the term “thermos” has become commonly used to refer to any vacuum flask, re­gard­less of the man­u­fac­tur­er. Here are some other examples of trade­marks that have become gener­i­cized:

• Aspirin (orig­i­nal­ly a trademark of Bayer)
• Catseye
• Escalator
• Flip phone
• Laun­dro­mat
• Sellotape
• Tram­po­line

Why does this happen?

This can occur when the public begins using a brand name to refer to a type of product rather than the specific brand. The company holding the trademark must take steps to actively protect it, such as pre­vent­ing it from being used gener­i­cal­ly. If the company fails to protect the brand’s dis­tinc­tive­ness, it risks losing its exclusive rights to the term.

Please refer to the legal notice for this article.