Legal Question in Business Law in California

Hi I am forming a new company on the internet, my domain name is storiesandtalents.com, my question is that will i need to file that llc with or without a dot.com or does it matter? and does it matter if the wording are separate or together, stories and talents? I will be trademarking the company as well. What is your advice on trademarking for this company? I want to protect the name. Does it have to be exactly the same on the LLC.? Should I trademark it with a dot com or without a dot.com since the domain name is with a com thanks, Donalisa


Asked on 11/02/15, 7:32 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

There is no reason an LLC's name has to be the same as the domain name for their web presence or anything else. For example the franchising company Subway is actually legally named "Doctors Associates, Inc." A Subway franchisee may also set up an LLC or corporation that doesn't even have Subway in its name. Yet they come together to do business on the web as Subway.com. The only requirement is that if you do business in a name that is not exactly the same as your formal business entity, whether LLC or corporation, you will have to file a fictitious business name statement that identifies the formal legal name and the other forms of the name or other names under which you want to do business (this does not apply to your domain name so long as the content only uses your legal name, or names you have filed the statement for). So, for example, if you choose to register your LLC as Stories and Talents, LLC, you can do business as Stories and Talents, Stories and Talents, LLC and storiesandtalents.com without any registration other than your LLC filings. However, if you wanted to have a section of your web presence that is at storiesandtalents.com/StoriesRUs And have a Stories R Us brand identity, you would have to register the Stories R Us as a fictitious business name of Stories and Talents, LLC.

As for trademark registration, it is safest to register each version of your name as a separate trademark. Unless the "storiesandtalents.com" will be used as a brand identifier other than as the URL, however, you probably don't need to register that version, as it is protected under domain naming laws.

Read more
Answered on 11/02/15, 10:40 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Business Law questions and answers in California