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[237amdotcom]

i have some questions and curious if i can have some input...

i have a design/clothing/furniture line that i'm working and and i have registered my trademark/logo and waiting to hear back before i launch some of my clothing..... i also am working on a furniture line that i'm hoping to release in the fall..... i do alot of work in the architecture realm from building professional models to furniture/etc  237am dot com is the site..... well.. question is that all my work that i have done has been under   2:37am  my company and since i dibble dabble in a bunch of markets, should i create sub companies under 2:37am      ... i am registered as an s-corp and been so since 2000........ it wasnt until recently that i decided to do clothing/etc .... i plan on having a few product lines and am afraid of issues later...... my name  2:37am is known and i really dont want to try to create another company to use just for my clothing/etc.....

not sure on insurance issues either..... i used to do design/build but stopped that due to b.s. and the market..... i'm leaning more towards creating products/lines to sell......

any suggestions would help.... i'm in a catch 22 and sort of confused...


thanks
b

[JSonnabend]

First of all, nice work.  

As for the legal question, it's a difficult one to answer without detailed discussion, but if the clothing business is going to be operated as a distinct business, with its own debt and liabilities, it may very well make sense to isolate it from your other, more established business by creating a new business entity for it.

From the trademark/trade name perspective, it makes no difference whether the new company is part of the existing company nor whether the company name matches the clothing brand name.

- Jeff

[237amdotcom]

just found out today that i have to register in the different classes for each area of interest........

thanks for the help...

b

[JSonnabend]

You don't have to register in any class, as you don't have to register your trademark at all.

To the extent you asked a question at all in your original post (and I don't think you did), you didn't ask about registering, you asked about business entity formation, which doesn't really have a concept of "registration in different classes".

If I may be direct, your creative work is really sharp, in my lay opinion.  Your business skills don't appear to be on the same level as your creative abilities, however.  If you're serious about moving ahead with your business formation and brand creation, you probably should speak with an attorney and not try to do it yourself.

You can take that advice for whatever you feel it's worth.

- Jeff

[237amdotcom]

i'm just a one man shop so i have to do it all really...

i wanted to register my trademark/logo so it wont be taken in the future... i'm already a registered s-corp but didnt register my trademark/name/logo....

not sure if or what, but the lady i spoke to regarding registering to the uspto, she said that since i'm creating a product and selling that i have to register under the different classes to protect my name in what i do

but in all, i want to know if i can register my name and have all the rights to my name... whether if it's in furniture/clothing/etc.... more like an overall ownership of the name........  so this way if i tend to venture into another idea under my tradename, i'm already covered....

thanks
b

[JSonnabend]

There is no such thing as "overall ownership" of a name.  Who owns the mark "Delta"?  The airline?  The power tool manufacturer?  The faucet people?

You can protect your name for your goods and services and those closely enough related to it.  

As for the advice given by the PTO representative, it doesn't sound like particularly accurate advice.  Perhaps it's correct in some general sense, but not anything you should rely on to make real worlds decisions.

Why is being a one man shop an issue?  Many of my clients are individual entrepreneurs, and I provide them with the legal counsel they need at rates they can afford.

- Jeff