What I understand is that you ultimately, really protect your business name only by using it. Corporations are registered by states, and ficticious business names are registered in counties. Registering a name doesn't really protect it though, because the same name could legally exist in many other states, many other counties.

You could be Acme Corporation in Illinois and legally own that corporation in that state, but there could be another Acme Corporation in every other state, and every one of them is legal until you win a lawsuit proving that they are trading on the commercial interests you own. When you really get protection is when you use that name, and therefore when you find somebody else using it you can prove that you had it first, so they are trading on your name. There are lots of McDonald's restaurants around, and McDonald's can't stop them from using that name if they had it early enough, and especially if they aren't pretending to be a fast foods hamburger joint. The attempt to confuse is very important.

One thing I learned the hard way, making my own way with my own business: sometimes you need to ask an attorney. So many of us skimp on legal fees and look for ways around it, but we live in a new age and attorneys are an essential part of the business landscape.

They aren't all like the stereotype. I work with a local attorney who is smart, honest, and very professional. He is expensive but his advice has saved me more money than his bills have cost me.

With a lot of the questions we get on the ask-the-expert service we could give you our amateur guesswork on handling legal problems, but it would be doing you no favor. We don't have an attorney as one of the experts, so we don't answer legal questions.

To find an attorney, insist on good recommendations from formal clients. You need to take the time to find someone with small business experience. Check the recommendations well.

For additional help, if you don't get an attorney, you might turn to the software offered by Intuit and some of its competitors, or websites like http://www.excite.com/guide/business/law/ and the Yahoo! small business site. We really make it a rule not to answer legal questions, because it would be doing you a disservice.