If you want to be the only one using the name you have chosen, you obviously need legal protection.

In today's competitive market place, protecting your business identity has become one of the most important steps you can take. Here are few reasons why you should register your trademark:

• you receive exclusive nationwide ownership
• you will not be accused of infringement
• you will deter others from using the identical or similar trademark in the same category of goods or services
• no other trademarks similar to yours will be registered
• your trademark will be mentioned in search reports ordered by others
• you will have a basis for obtaining registration in foreign countries.

Before spending time and money promoting your name, make sure that the name is available. While optional, a comprehensive trademark search, either nationwide or international, is advisable to know if the chosen name is not registered or not being used already by someone else.

If the trademark preliminary search shows that your name is clean, continue with filing a trademark application.

Once the registration is done, you may need to keep an eye for misuse or illegal use of your trademark. So you can request a monitoring of your trademark.

Finally, as there is no business without implying Internet, you should check the domain availability of the name. Don't worry if YourChosenName.com is already taken. Add some words or letters and thus obtain an available domain name. Or use WordMaker to create a domain name related to your business.

Names can be classified into two different categories: Real and Invented

REAL NAMES - common words or common word combinations:

• Descriptive - names with clear meanings which describe some aspects, characteristics or qualities of the products or services. E.g. Car Motors, Red Wines, Cruise Travels.
• Associative - existing words which suggest or refer to the goods or services, but do not literally describe them; words used in new ways, working through indirect associations (images, symbols, metonymies or metaphors). E.g. Fresh System (air conditioning firm), Smart Way (transportation company).
• Arbitrary - existing words that do not bear a connection with the products, services or companies they identify. E.g. Mango (video solutions agency), Tigers (training providers).
• Compounds* - names which consist of two existing words put together. E.g. Transbridge, Aqualife, Multilink.
• *WordMaker includes a great tool that generates thousands of new compound names from 5 languages.
• Personal Names/Surnames/Geographical Names. E.g. Thompson & Richardson, Tom Burter Ltd.

INVENTED NAMES - made-up words:

• Blends* - names formed from parts of two words and whose meaning shares or combines the meanings of the source words. E.g. Twingo (Twist + Tango), Skylliance (Sky + Alliance).
• *WordMaker includes two efficient tools - Create blends and Truncate keywords - which help you in generating a great many of wonderful names of this category. Moreover, Combiner offers you brainwaves and various name suggestions by semantic fields (Beautiful, Intelligence, Beneficial, and many more).
• Fanciful names* - names with no obvious meanings, with indefinite or obscure origins (these are the most distinctive and trademarkable names). E.g. Tilma, Bonimo, Furodil.
• *Virtually all WordMaker's name building features churn out fanciful names.
• Acronyms/Initials - IBM (International Business Machine), BP (British Petroleum).
• Tweaked names* - words that have been slightly changed in spelling, usually with a letter replaced or added. E.g. The Beatles, Protecta
• *Go to Modelator and see how a little change can work wonders. Go to Mixer and get all possible letter permutations.