Questions about trademarking/copyright my business name if its already taken

[vesperjunkie]

A buddy and I have launched an niche entertainment news blog site for a school project. The semester is coming to an end and I feel like I can maintain another similar blog by myself.

So, I already have the name and although it's dot com domain name is taken, I am more than happy with the dot us counterpart.

I went to uspto and looked to see who trademarked the name. there was only one "live".

it seems to be a company in the female clothing industry.

from my understanding, i thought it was okay to trademark the same name if it belonged in a totally different category.

i want to have the same name and seeing how my business would fit the media industry/web business, i hope that it would be okay.

i was wondering if any of you guys could provide me with some advice.

for LLC, i know that it depends on if the name is taken in the state that the business is taking place - which is iffy for me. i may be moving this upcoming summer, so should i wait until i move to form an llc?

i really want the rights to the name. with the above, what steps would i take?

thanks in advance.

[cyman]

One thing you should note is that if you really want to make this big you will likely want a unique name. Rebranding later could be hard.

[wowgold]

wow,it is cool...

[mcstartup]

If you share the name, perhaps we could come up with some .com alternatives. You are correct on the trademark thing (in general).