Doula Business Advisor: Protecting Your Name

Once you have settled on a name and/or logo for your doula business, there are several levels of protection available to ensure that you retain ownership, and therefore the right to use the name or logo. For a sole proprietorship or partnership, check with your County Clerk’s Office to run a name-availability query. If the name is available, you can file a DBA or “Doing Business As” (approximate cost is $10). You will be issued a certificate good for five years. If anyone else in your county attempts
to do business under the same or too-similar a name, you can order them to “cease and desist” using your protected business name. On the other hand, if you simply print up promotional materials and neglect to protect your business name, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a “cease and desist” letter. In this case, you will need to come up with a new name for your business and will be facing a (potentially substantial) loss in time, money, and effort that could easily have been avoided.

Corporations are granted exclusive statewide use of a business name. My
husband procured a DBA for his business, known as Computer House Call,
a sole proprietorship operating primarily in Washtenaw County, Michigan.
About a year into the business, he was served with a “cease and desist” letter from a company that had incorporated with the State of Michigan under the same name and was doing business about two hours west of us in a different metropolitan area. The rival company’s business plan included eventual expansion throughout Southeastern Michigan and it had secured the necessary name protection. Consequently, we reformed my husband’s business as an LLC under the name Computer Home Service, thereby incorporating with the state.

If you want statewide protection for your business name, consider the LLC option and check with your Secretary of State regarding availability of the name. Finally, a more comprehensive level of protection is offered by a federal trademark, though most small businesses operating within a local sphere will not require this. A business with a federally registered trademark has exclusive use of the protected name and/or logo throughout the United States. A trademark is obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and it trumps the state name protection or the DBA. You can do a free trademark search at www.uspto.gov.

I recently trademarked my business name at a cost of $500, using the service offered through LegalZoom.com to set it up. One tip here is to be
sure to read and follow up on any communication received from the federal
trademark agency. Failure to do so in a timely manner can result in abandonment of your application and additional strap-on fees assessed for reactivation. Check the status of your application every couple of months to establish due diligence until the process is complete.

The Doula Business Advisor blog is designed to support the establishment and long-term sustainability of private doula businesses. Today’s blog is excerpted from Patty Brennan’s new book, The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business.

Posted by Patty Brennan on February 1, 2011 • Filed under Doula Business Advisor
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