Legal Question in Business Law in Texas

Re: Someone Else Using My Business Name

Registering the name with the County Clerk does not reserve the name at the Secretary of States office. You are out of luck.

Re: Someone Else Using My Business Name

A trademark can be registered Federally or it can be registered with the Texas Secretary of State's Office. However, state trademark registrations are not equivalent to federal registrations. A trademark registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does not need to be registered with a state because federal registration gives the owner the rights to that trademark nationally. A party who has not registered a trademark federally may wish to file the trademark with the State of Texas. For example, if a person is operating a small business in Texas and has no intention of expanding the business, he or she may consider registering the trademark with the Secretary of State to protect his/her interests only in Texas. State registration provides protection only in that state, so a person can have a registered trademark in Texas and another person could legally use the same trademark in Louisiana. Once again, this would not be a problem, if you had no intention of expanding the business outside the registered state.

Registering an assumed name or a corporate name in Texas is not trademark registration and does not provide trademark protection. However, you should speak to a intellectual property attorney regarding filing of your company's name and whether your prior use would place you in a better position to succeed.

You can also discuss what the best form of business would be to suit your needs, whether it is a LLC, LLP, etc.