Contact the Secretary of State in your state about registering the name with their office. It might cost a few bucks but it will protect your name.
Business name registration rules vary by state, but you are typically required to register any name that does not include your actual surname. Such statutes are often called 'fictitious name" statutes and some places require municipal registration under a "doing business as" (d/b/a) rule.
Trademarks are different from trade names. You can call your product something different from your business name. For instance, what company sells "Pampers" or "Huggies"? Those are brand names, whether or not anyone knows who sells them.
Your trademark rights, in the USA, arise from being the first to use a distinctive brand on your goods in commerce. You may optionally register a qualifying trademark in one or more US states or in the federal USPTO, with the necessary filing of forms and fees.
The link below takes you to a federal site with an FAQ and other info for 'trademark' users and applicants for registration.
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks
You can't patent a name in and of itself. Copyright of a design using such might be possible, maybe trademark status. I'd start by registering the name with the gov't.
google the terms "DBA" and/or "assumed name".
You patent a product and copyright a logo or name. If someone else starts using your name, you sue them to stop them from using it.
You can copyright in your state and go from there.
Register it. Very difficult to argue business names, depends on who did what when. best just to promote your own business and let other do whatever they do - but poorer than you.
It took me a while to create a creative photography name for my business. Now the question is .. how can I make it mine?
