Protecting against lawsuits with name of side project
Protecting against lawsuits with name of side project
Hello, I am launching my side project, which will be free and open source - so it is not going to be some business.
However I am worried how should I protect against lawsuits when naming it.
I bought .com domain. There is no trademark for its name - only in some medical stuff totally unrelated.
I found that on Github there is some old with quite similar usage as my app, however it seems dead and not trademarked.
I would like to avoid registering name, because it is only side project. But I am worried about fines.
What should I do? Would it be better to just forget about my perfect name and find another?
Thank you
at most they'll file a complaint and you can change your name afterwards. since you have almost no value (at start), they won't bother with lawsuits since they won't get anything out of it.
Also, at least have LLC to protect yourself if this is your company.
I am not a lawyer, however I don't think you should be worried. If there are no other companies with a trademark for the name, then you are fine. A "dead", non-trademarked name is not going to have any legal ramifications.
If you are seriously concerned, then perhaps you should advise with an attorney. My personal opinion though is that you really don't need to worry.
What Jason said. I had to change my business name a few months in due to a potential copyright issue from a big company. Didn't affect business much cause it's not like we were a big brand anyway. Paid an IP lawyer a couple hundred bucks and that was it. Build what you wanna build and cross that bridge if you get there.