Legalizing a name

#1 You can register it as a company, or patent it.

#2 Also you'll need to see if they already have the name Trademarked as well.

#3 Anyone know what is the average cost of trying to get a name Trademarked?

#4 IIRC, the last time I looked I think it was some where around $200 (Canadian). Don't quote me though, I could be wrong.

#5 You cannot "own" a name in all contexts. The law doesn't work that way. Unlike what Mincetro says, you cannot patent a name - you can only patent a *process*.

Trademarks offer you a little bit of protection, however:
1) It doesn't protect the trademark in all contexts. If a trademark is challenged by being used in a totally different market segment (for instance, a video game named "Lynxo" and a cleaning product named "Lynxo"), they may allow it, saying that there is no market confusion.

2) Trademark law is civil, not criminal. If someone uses your trademark as their own, it is up to you to spend the time and money defending it. Failure to defend a trademark may cause you to lose any rights to the trademark, which is why you see companies acting like jerks when 10 year olds put up "fan" websites.

3) Prior use comes into things when, as you say, other people have websites with that name. If you were to formally trademark your name, even if you were to go after these other sites for infringing on your trademark, it would be very, very hard to win, since they've been using it since before you registered it as a trademark.

So: find a different name, or, alternately, use the one you've come up with but don't expect to be able to protect it.

(disclaimer: IANAL, and different places have different rules)

#6 Did you buy the URL? That helps too. And (C) Your companyname Year everything.

#7 Ahh fooey.. I will just pick a different name..

#8 Do what I'm going to do - I'm going to make a company name I care less about, something goofy.

Then when you get enough money and support, you can quickly strike at the original name you wanted, and likely have better luck at keeping that particular name.

#9 THen that may cause consumer confusion. I am not sure I want to play that game.

#10 It's all over, though. Theres already a company out there with the greatest name ever, so we're all stuck with second best.

The company? Toys for Bob.

Wonderful.

#11 Your ability to market far outweighs the name. For instance, ten years ago, no one knew what an 'ebay' or a 'google' was. Even 'yahoo' is very vague, but we know all about them today.

While it would be nice have a name which pertains to your industry, it isn't required for success. It should be noted that a name which doesn't really tell you anything about the company but is fun to say can work well too.

Good Luck!

#12 Consumer confusion? Regular gamers care less about who made the game or who published it. True gamers do care. So if you change your studio name, the true gamers will know. And the regulars won't care.