Legal Question in Business Law in California

E- commerce business - Advice

We are planning to start and e-commerce business with multiuple companies. The company will be based in Central California and will be ran out of our house since it will be online. This company will be started by two 19 year old's so we dont really have a lot of money to throw into it at first and i know the price for lawyer advice is expensive so any feedback would be greatly appreicated. We are planning on having one company behind it all and having all of our product based businesses as subsidiaries under it.

- If we started a main corporate name say it was called '' creative journeys ''; and had subsidaries under it called '' shirtsforyou '' and '' subliminal messages'' then would we only have to get one business liscense for ''creative journeys'' (which would be our LLC) and have all the income run through that business as long as we file all the DBA names of the other companies.

- Since we are selling t-shirts; I read that slogans cannot be copyrighted. So if we were to use a slogan would it be ok, as long as it did not have a companies logo or their name. (some examples: Got Milk?(could we say Got ___?) : the whole 'my anti-drug' design, could we put our own word in the box to show it as our anti-drug.).


Asked on 5/04/05, 4:34 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Jonas Grant Law Office of Jonas M. Grant, A.P.C.

Re: E- commerce business - Advice

Paying for some legal advice now may be less costly than cleaning up any mistakes made later.

E.g., how did you arrive upon the LLC over an S or C corp?

As the other attorney suggested, if you hire someone to form your LLC (and determine whether this is indeed the most appropriate business entity structure for your businesses), you may be able to get legal advice on most of your other issues in the bargain. If you're interested in retaining me, please see my website at http://www.incorporatecalifornia.com - I charge flat fee rates and work with clients outside of L.A. via email/phone/fax/mail.

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Answered on 5/05/05, 5:37 pm
Timothy J. Walton Internet Attorney

Re: E- commerce business - Advice

You are asking for specific legal advice. You need to hire an attorney to get such advice.

Have you talked to an attorney about creating your LLC? If so, perhaps a single attorney could provide you with advice about your multiple legal issues.

If you have not yet hired an attorney, call me for a free half hour consultation. I will not provide you with legal advice unless and until you become a client, but perhaps we can focus your questions so that you are more sure about your business idea.

My telephone number is (650) 566-8500.

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Answered on 5/04/05, 5:55 pm


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