Let today's efforts emphasize the importance of paying attention to detail.
I wish to operate as "Amish Electric." No power- no problem ... seems simple enough!
A local gent had registered the name with the county. However, the county filing offers exactly ZERO protection. All it accomplishes is that it allows you to enforce your contracts. As far as the county is concerned, there can be a hundred firms with exactly the same name.
The 'squatter' is not in the trade, registered with the state's corporations office (Secretary of State), and has no city business license. He is not electrician, apprentice, or contractor. His squatting effort is a failure.
My registration of the name with the Secretary of State will protect it for 90 days - plenty of time for me to get issued the license number. Once I have that number, I'm pretty well set as far as the name is concerned.
Another gent - this one in Illinois - is squatting on the 'dot com' version. Alas for him, there is absolutely no bar to being 'dot net' or 'dot biz.' Well, there is now - I've got 'dot biz.'
Give me a few days to figure out how to use it.
