Do You Really Own Your Web Business?

So you have finally finished all of the hard work of getting your web business up and running. You have a professional looking website, you have your logo prominently displayed for your customers to know who you are. You have found the right product or service and have actually started making a profit. But you have forgotten one last very important step. You did not check to see if there were any other businesses with a similar name to your web business. This could be a very costly mistake on your part. If you happen to have a name that is the same as another website or business you could possibly find yourself in a heap of trouble. Or you may come to find out that there is another website or business that is using the same name as you in the same type industry. If this is the case, you stand to lose profits as well as credibility. So how do you protect yourself from this potential disaster? Trademark your name. Make sure that you follow the proper procedures and acquire the name and copyright of your web business. Once you own the rights, you can have them on file and this will save you time and trouble if someone happens to try and say they had the name first. Also if you go to get a Trademark for your business or product name you can do a search and find out if the name has already been taken. This is somewhat like doing a domain name search before you can register your URL name. However as you may know, domains in themselves really have no legal rights at all. A domain is just an address... it's when you have a trade marked name within a domain name that gives you rights. Remember that you have worked hard to build a profitable business on the Internet and you should protect it at all levels.