I started a business with someone a few years ago and I came up with the name and logo. I had a dispute with my partner earlier and he locked me out of the domain panel, although I came up with the name. The company is registered but it is registered under his name alone. I read somewhere that I should trademark the name and sue for infringement, but I'm not sure if that would work because he controls the domain and already does business under my name. Is there anything I can do about this? All I have for evidence is chat logs and company registration files.
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1Get a good lawyer, who will either tell you that you messed up and there's nothing you can do, or advice you what to do.– gnasher729Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 13:33
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2 Answers
Don't do this - the trademark (if it is a trademark) already exists and is owned by the business.
Just bring a case for your half of the business. Hire a lawyer first.
Register? What goods or services are you producing under that brand?
You generally cannot federally register a trademark that you are not actually using, under US law. You cannot legally use the brand already owned by someone else, on similar goods or services, without their permission.
Attempting to register a brand for which you have no legal rights could be considered a felony, when you submit the "certification" that is untrue. Because "another" entity is already using the brand, that company automatically owns the right to prevent you or anyone else from using or attempting to register a "confusingly similar" brand.
This would probably also prevent you from legally registering it in any state as well, although not all states have trademark functionaries who put a tremendous amount of effort into it. If the brand happens to coincide with the company name (trade name rather than trademark), you're more likely to be administatively stymied, rather than having to wait to be sued.
