Question: How do I know if the name of the seller for my eBay store is legal?

QUESTION: What legal considerations are there in choosing the name of the seller for my online store? I do not want to use another name or a name prohibited.

ANSWER: Technically, there are some legal requirements for naming your business, but many of these rules are obsolete (and unnoticed and are not enforced) for online merchants.

In most counties of the United States, you are required to obtain a "fictitious name" permission if you operate a business under a name other than your legal name. (In some countries they call it "doing business as" permission.)

In my province, for example, the permit costs $ 20. After submitting the application, an employee simply seeking the files of the county to ensure the absence of any other business is using the same name. Right off the bat, you can see this practice has limited value today - as an online seller, you may be transactions throughout the world, not only in your home province.

The original logic of these rules was to protect consumers from fly-by-night companies. If someone has purchased a product or service that proved to be defective, the buyer may need to get the real name of the business owner to obtain a refund or cause.

With today's markets like Amazon and eBay, solve problems is usually much simpler. If a buyer is unhappy with a purchase, e-mail the seller. If the seller does not respond properly, makes the whole Amazon or Paypal buyer. If a seller (or buyer) is quite often in dispute, their trade privileges are revoked.

Another reason for the name "dummy" permits is to prevent new businesses accidentally (or intentionally) by using the name of an existing company, creating confusion. For example, in the context of Amazon, if anyone has tried to open a seller's account under the name "Barnes and Noble," it would be inappropriate - they would be taking advantage of an existing trade name. On the other hand, someone could probably open an account using the name "Joe's Place", although there are probably 5,000 restaurants using that name - but there's no chance anyone would confuse the online bookseller with restaurants . And if someone at Amazon is already using the name "Joe's Place," Amazon system would simply prevent new vendors use the same name.

If you are a part-timer, I would not lose too much sleep over the choice of the name of the seller. A Google search the name in quotes, you probably will show whether you are using. If you accidentally started using a trade name exists, you may receive a letter to "cease and desist" from the lawyers of the company, threatening to take you to court unless they stopped using the name.

One more consideration: If you think you might want to operate a store on your personal Web site, one day, you should check now to see if the domain name is available. You can search for available domain names on the official websites of suppliers of guests, including Register.com. Even if you decide to launch a Web site today, you can register your domain and pay a nominal fee to keep the name until you launch your site .......