The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

The other day, I had a new member register for our free Virtual Assistant Networking Club. Unfortunately, we had a dilemma because this was a new Virtual Assistant who was operating under the same name as one of our members. I thought the situation was an opportunity to remind Virtual Assistants about trade name infringement.

In the Virtual Assistant industry, we have no geographical boundaries from each other, which makes having a unique business name even more important. I don’t know how other Virtual Assistant associations handle it, but at the VACOC, we think it’s important for us to support our members as well as established Virtual Assistants. We do that by not condoning or enabling the practice of trade name infringement.

Outside of laws, we operate on the premise of doing the right thing. When starting a Virtual Assistant business, regardless of treading on a fellow Virtual Assistant’s toes, here is why it’s important to you to have a unique business name:

1. You don’t want to get sued. A Virtual Assistant with legal rights and established use of an existing trade name can sue you for infringement. It costs a lot of money and energy to defend yourself. If you lose (which you can by either default or because the Court finds in the plaintiff’s favor), it will cost even more. It’s just not a ball of wax you want to even potentially put yourself in. And you should always expect that anyone who takes their business seriously is going to also protect their business interests just as seriously.
2. It’s not a great way to be welcomed into the community. The Virtual Assistant world is a very small, tight-knit community. People will know you are infringing on one of their comrades. Think about it. If it were you, how would you feel if someone new came into the industry and started using your business name, the one you’ve been using for X years, the one you spent blood, sweat and tears (not to mention money!) building, and around which all your identity and marketing has been based? You are going to create ill will and negative energy for yourself by stepping on an established colleague’s toes.
3. You don’t want to be confused with another Virtual Assistant. It’s going to be really important to differentiate yourself from other Virtual Assistants, and that includes having a unique business name and identity. It doesn’t do you any good to be using another Virtual Assistant’s established business name if traffic and name recognition is going to be diverted to that Virtual Assistant who was using it first.
4. You don’t want to have to redo everything (e.g., web site, marketing materials, etc.). If you are caught infringing, it’s going to be a lot of work and more money to start all over again.

So, what do you do? A bit of homework is in order. To make sure you come up with a unique name and do not infringe on the established trade name rights of any of your Virtual Assistant colleagues, there are steps you can and should take:

1. Search Virtual Assistant directories. Make sure no one else is using the name already or anything close to it.
2. Conduct a search for the name (or the predominant unique identifying part of it) in several different search engines. I suggest Google, MSN, Yahoo and any others you might think of. Better to be thorough now than sorry later.
3. Search the uspto.gov database. Make sure no one else in the Virtual Assistant industry is already using that tradename or any form of it. Changing a letter or word is not going to help you if the name can be considered to be substantially the same and would still create confusion.

What does all this that mean? It means it doesn’t matter if you are using “(Same Name) Business Solutions” and they are using “(Same Name) Administrative Support.” You are in the same industry and it’s the novel, identifying part of the name that matters.

Also, your domain or domain name availability has nothing to do with things. If you infringe on someone’s name rights (and I’m not talking about generic search engine terms), you can be compelled to relinquish the domain.

Once you find a name that is unique and that in no way can be confused with another Virtual Assistant’s existing, established identity, you’re home free.

If you think you were the first to use the name, contact the other Virtual Assistant and see if you can work things out. The good will and positive energy you create by engaging in honorable, ethical business practices will serve you well.