For future reference I was wondering what exactly you have to do to make a company legit? copyright the name, etc

It depends on how you intend to do business.

The most simple is to a "DBA", or "Doing Business As", where it is an individual that has registered a fictitious business name.

It involves filling out a few forms at the state level, registering the name you wanted to use, and potentially getting tax forms and business licenses from your state, county, and city.

Call or check the web site for your state's department of commerce, and they can help you do the steps.

what I want to do first is basically start with a name. no selling or anything like that for now. Would I simply need to copy write that name or would I still have to follow the steps you mentioned?

Names cannot be copyrighted. What you're after is trademark protection. You still need to do all the other stuff frob talked about if you want to start a company, though.

Dunno about the US, but I work casual as a removalist and the guys at my work who start their own business and become contractors have to pay a fair bit of money to register their business etc. I'm talking a few grand. I don't think it's something you want to do unless you know it's financially worth it.

Yeah my concern is that it's just going to be to much to pay at first. Does anyone have a clue how much it would cost jsut to get a name of a game trademarked?

A trademark valid in the US only, has a filing fee of about 300 USD. Incorporating as a LLC in Delaware is somewhere in the 500 USD range if you want to go through a firm.

Unless you have a real company that has a real chance of selling and making money on the game, why bother trademarking it?

If it's just a hobby project, you're not going to pay lawyers to file suit against someone for coincidentally using your pet project's name, so why go through the bother of trademarking it?

It sounds like amateur business to "start with a name". You should worry about finishing the project, not protecting your name.

Quote: Original post by Nexrus
what exactly you have to do to make a company legit? copyright the name, etc

Quote: Does anyone have a clue how much it would cost jsut to get a name of a game trademarked?

Before you were talking about trademarking your company name. Now you're talking about trademarking your game name. Sounds to me like you really need to talk to an attorney, at least for a short while, so he can explain things to you. At the very least, you ought to do some reading. Nolo Press has a great book on Copyright, Trademark, and Patent, and I highly recommend it.

Quote: Original post by Nexrus
Yeah my concern is that it's just going to be to much to pay at first. Does anyone have a clue how much it would cost jsut to get a name of a game trademarked?

You are talking about many different things. Go read some books, as Tom pointed out.

To prevent you from getting into deeper trouble, here is the very minimum you should know:



1) You have mentioned both copyright and trademark. At this point in your business, you don't need either one.


2) To start a business, you must be recognized as a business entity by the government.


3) Almost everything you need is already on the state web site: http://www.vdba.virginia.gov/. Go read. It also has a phone number if their web site doesn't answer the questions. Call it.