Good one, Josh. I'll be looking for "A film by Non-Practicing Productions" from here on out (especially with your soon-to-be-released film that Paul is working on for you).

WARNING
 

At the moment (December 2002), there is a leak in the US PTO and if you register your name with them--or even so much as run a search to determine whether the name has been taken yet--without first claiming the domain name, yourcompanyname.com will be reserved within a half hour of your US PTO registration.

If the domain name is available, always grab it as soon as you can. Also, you shouldn't pay $35/year for your domain name through an overpriced registrar like Register.com. $14/year domain registrations are available through The Geek Empire (http://www.thegeekempire.net).

Robert,

Interesting story. There are over a million searches a day. Someone would have to pay a pretty penny to register them all and to what end? The cybersquatting laws would hit them pretty hard.

Let's also not confuse a trademark with a domain name. Not the same thing.

Applying for a trademark is a matter of public record. There is no "leak" involved. There is a considerable expense at researching them however. (The online search is not very specific or complete.)

But this thread may be veering off into another direction.

This is interesting.
My question is...what about liability? I hear a lot of people warning me about incorporating to protect my personal assets. I had a small DBA before. Now I'm starting to get A LOT of extra freelance work on the side. Whats the best way to incorporate?
Sole Proprietership?
LLC?
What the heck are they anyway?

Any info greatly appreciated.

Jeff Patnaude

Think of it this way:

For example, two companies are shooting a wedding:
Jeff Productions, and Jeff Productions Ltd.
Jeff is shooting the video, but he knocks his tripod over, into a row of candles, setting the church on fire, killing the bride and groom.
Jeff Productions gets sued for $10,000,000 and loses. Jeff has to sell everything-house, car, kids, wife, dog, and declare bankrupcy, and is pretty much done for life.
Jeff Productions Ltd, gets sued for $10,000,000 and loses. The company loses it's assets (some camera equipment, a few lights) and folds. Jeff, the employee who caused the fire, goes home to his house, kicks back on his couch with a beer, watches some baseball, and decides what to call his new production company.

At least, that's how I understand it.

Dylan, in corporations the principals can get sued for their personal assets.

A LTD. company has more protections for the principals.

You can protect yourself by getting business insurance. But you are still out lawyer fees in the Church example.

Edited my previous post to correct that error.

I registered my company as Shoutng Cow Productions, LLC.

I have produced one short film under this company name. My other productions has been established under a new LLC name which is usually the title of the film and then the LLC suffix.

In terms of liability if you have one company and produce 10 films under this company. This one company would then be liable for the 10 films. If you establish 10 different companies for the pupurse of producing 10 films, the total liability will then be spread out.

An other good piece of advise is to make sure that you also get the web domain name. If you register an LLC or an Inc, designs logos, make letter head paper, business cards etc. and then don't have the web domain you have lost out greatly since your website will be your voice to the world!

Reading back over this thread, I wanted to get clarification on a couple of points.

It is my understanding that a 'trademark' protects your 'logo' meaing it is the mark(logo) that you uniquely indentify with your trade(business).

Example: Coke isn't a trademark. Coca-Cola, written in the manner they use on the bottles and cartons IS a trademark.

Trademarks, don't protect 'business names'.

It's also my understanding that (here in Texas anyway) when I file a DBA form for a sole proprietorship, my company name is only required to be unique in my county. But, if I wish to incorporate, then my name has to be unique on a national level. I am not sure about LLC naming requirements.

Any comments or corrections are greatly appreciated since I am about to take the big plunge.

regards,

-gb-