From the Nolo Business & Human Resources Center
Pick a Winning Name for Your Business
Choose a business name that will identify your
company's products and services.
There's a lot of room for personal and professional creativity when choosing
a business name, but there are three main considerations to keep in mind:
- Will your business name receive trademark protection?
- Is your proposed business name available?
- If your business will have a website, is a similar domain name available?
Will Your Business Name Receive Trademark Protection?
Trademark law will prevent another business from using a name or logo that is
likely to be confused with your business name if your business name is entitled
to trademark protection. If your business is anything but a small, local,
service, or retail business, such as a dry cleaners or a fabric store, you'll
probably want to take advantage of this.
| Trademarks Help Companies Market Products
and Services |
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![src=]() Allowing businesses to have exclusive use of their names
helps consumers identify and recognize goods in the marketplace. For instance,
when you buy Racafrax brand of wood glue, you'll know that it will be similar in
quality to the Racafrax glue you bought last time. By contrast, if any company
were allowed to call their glue "Racafrax Glue," you would never know what you
were getting. By allowing just one company to use a name like Racafrax,
trademark law helps that company to build customer trust and
goodwill.
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Any business name used to market and identify products or services is a
trademark. For example, McDonald's uses its business name to market its
hamburgers. But to qualify for trademark protection under the trademark laws,
your business name should be what trademark law considers "distinctive."
Distinctive Names Receive More Trademark Protection
Distinctive business names (such as Xerox, Quicken, and Amazon.com) are
clever and memorable, and they usually receive protection under federal and
state trademark law. Common or ordinary names (such as Smith's Hardware, Tom's
Gourmet Sandwiches, and Pets.com) usually do not.
While there's no magic formula for concocting distinctive business names,
they tend to be made up of surprising or fanciful words that often have nothing
to do with the underlying business, product, or service, such as Kodak film or
Double Rainbow ice cream. However, there can be a downside to coining a brand
new word or using a completely arbitrary term. Business names that have nothing
to do with the underlying product or service often require extensive and
expensive marketing efforts to become established.
The best names for small businesses are those that customers can easily
remember and associate with your business. For this reason, many small
businesses prefer to use words that cleverly suggest qualities about the
underlying product or service without describing them outright, such as Lending
Tree for loans, Slenderella for diet food products, or The Body Shop for
personal hygiene products. These names are also considered distinctive and are
therefore protected as trademarks.
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