The benefits of incorporating yourself include giving you increased protection over your personal assets, easier access to capital, giving your business more credibility, more anonymity, tax advantages, existing into perpetuity, access to more affordable health insurance, and having a lower risk of being audited after …

The owners of a corporation are shareholders (also known as stockholders) who obtain interest in the business by purchasing shares of stock. Shareholders elect a board of directors, who are responsible for managing the corporation.

A corporation’s shareholders (similar to the members of an LLC) are the people or legal entities who own the business. In most states, you only need one person to form a corporation, while the maximum number of shareholders varies by corporation type.

Limited Personal Liability. One of the main advantages of incorporating is that the owners’ personal assets are protected from creditors of the corporation. Because only corporate assets need be used to pay business debts, you stand to lose only the money that you’ve invested in the corporation.

Limited liability companies can use personal names in a variety of ways: first names, last names, initials plus a last name, or a personal name that’s only part of the business name, such as “Joe’s Bar and Grill.” You can also form an LLC under a different name and use your personal name as your DBA or “doing business …

Can Two LLCs or Companies Have the Same Name? Yes, with some exceptions. When you’re forming a corporation or an LLC in a state, the name must be unique to your business within that state. Others can form LLCs and businesses in other states that have the same name as yours.

Generally, DBAs will need to periodically pay renewal fees. LLCs face a wider range of ongoing fees. The choice between registering a DBA and forming an LLC is one of the major business decisions you, as a new business owner, must make. Forming an LLC is more costly than registering a DBA.

Because business names are registered on a state-by-state basis, the fact that a company in another state has the same name as yours is usually not a cause for concern. However, you are right in that there could be intellectual property issues (namely, trademark) when two companies have the same name.

In most states, the website of the state business filing agency includes an online entity name check tool. You can use the online tool to search business names and find out whether another business is already using the name you have chosen.

If someone uses your name, simply showing proof that you’ve trademarked the name could be enough to convince a business to choose something else. Most importantly, if you must go to court, you’ll have legal proof that you registered the name. However, you don’t have to trademark your business name to protect it.

A trademark can protect your name and logo in case someone else wants to use them for their own purposes. Also, you cannot really copyright a name, since copyright protects artistic works. This is exactly why you need to have a trademark that protects your company’s intellectual property, such as your logo.

Protect Sales: Registering your business name for a trademark protects your sales by preventing consumer confusion. For example, if another company uses the same or a similar name to yours and sells a similar product, customers might think they’re buying from you instead of your competitors.

Registering a trademark for a company name is pretty straightforward. Many businesses can file an application online in less than 90 minutes, without a lawyer’s help. The simplest way to register is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site, www.uspto.gov.

No, It Isn’t Possible to Patent a Name To protect your brand name and logo, you will need to utilize the trademark registration service. Both patents and trademarks are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, [email protected] or see Circular 33, for further information.