General Business Question

That would depend greatly of which country you are in. In the UK a registered (Limited) company must post accounts every year (for which you would probably have to pay an accountant. Other than that zip!


Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

If you incorporate in the US, you will have to keep records and file taxes every year from what I know. If you don''t make money though, you may not have to do anything. Best bet will be to ask an accountant what your tax requirements will be. It will also cost you money to incorporate so I am not so sure you should incorporate.

Kressilac

I understand that in the US it varies by state. My boss informed me that in MO if a company doesn''t make a profit in three years, it has to dissolve its corporation status - although it can reform instantly under another name. I''ve no idea if he was being knowledgeable or not.... hard to tell with bosses. ;-p

I don''t want to start cross-posting, so I post it here. btw, this is
for the US.

Is registering for an assumed company name the same thing as registering
for a business or are they different? Can you have an assumed name
without a business?

What I am specifically concerned about is how to gain ownership of a
company name, without bringing on any further obligations if that is all
I want at the moment.


Wayfarer

Skip the company if you don''t intend to spend a lot of time and money with the taxman....

Register your self a trademark instead. I guess it will cost 1.000 bucks or so, depending if you have a lawyer friend or not...

Trademark can be owned by private persons and have no other obligations than pay the fee ;-)

bmolsson

Oops I kinda screwed up with the other thread I started (Registering a business name). I''d glanced at this one before, but now that I''ve read it in depth, I realize you''re asking pretty much the same thing as I am, Wayfarer.

I found this page which details the process of starting a business for my state, Texas. You may be able to find your state''s on the web, too. Like I mentioned in my other thread, I''m going with a "Sole proprietorship". As far as I know, all I have to do is get a DBA/assumed name since my real name won''t appear in my business name. This costs like $50.

bmolsson, from what I''ve researched today, a trademark alone will probably not suffice for Wayfarer. I think that, once you have a business name, you can optionally register a trademark for that name to protect it (DBA''s don''t give you protection, so I guess that''s something to consider).

quote:

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Original post by bmolsson

Skip the company if you don''t intend to spend a lot of time and money with the taxman....
Register your self a trademark instead. I guess it will cost 1.000 bucks or so, depending if you have a lawyer friend or not...
Trademark can be owned by private persons and have no other obligations than pay the fee ;-)

bmolsson

---

The only problem with this is that a Trademark (as the name suggests) is protection for the name you trade under. If a company does not actually trade then the Trademark will lapse and anyone else can use it.





Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

quote:

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If a company does not actually trade then the Trademark will lapse and anyone else can use it.

---

Well then, maybe I should create a non-profit game organization?


Wayfarer

Well it wouldn''t be the first : )
Sadly too many developers (and publishers) fail to make a profit in the current market place.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions




Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

Wayfarer;

It all depends of what kind of company you are starting. If you are out for the first time in business, the model with depend on your product, your market and your time to market.

Some general guidelines are: Don''t form anything until you''ve got a deal or sales imminent. Two, if you have anything in the product like intellectual property -- something you thought up and or designed, take these steps:

1. Ask somebody you know and trust if they know an attorney they trust. Then, talk to them. Listen to their advice. More than likely, unless you are ready to roll something out now, and there is clear evidence there is demand for it in spite of the competition, as a good product should have, they will tell you quite rightly to come back when you have something that is ready to run.

2. If you are starting a business to establish brand presence and expand it, start small and inexpensive, because it will take you quite a long time to get any brand recognition out of time unless you have a hit under your belt ready to go. I have been writing for 20 years, and am still a proprietor. If a million dollar deal comes along, I may incorporate, I may not. As a writer and designer, I don''t have huge infrastructural or staffing requirements, so I work out of my home office most of the time. There are a lot of tax benefits to that here above silicon valley.

If you are a programmer, and have something compiled and ready to burn release copies and ship, write out a document of when the idea occured to you, how long you worked on it, detail the development process, and basically document how you brought it into existance, and then bring that letter and the program to the attorney and claim authorship, and leave the first copy with them. I cannot overstate that this be an attorney well trusted by several well informed and trustworthy professionals.

Then register it with the Writer''s Guild of American, then register the document itself on a form TX to the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington. Take copies of these registrations and supplement your original documentation to the attorney.

Then, work out the next phase of operations with a little confidence that there is a professional witness out there willing to bring suit on your behalf because they absolutely know it is yours, and they will get their fees out of the party that violates your intellectual property. Copyright violations is one of the most winnable cases in tort law, especially whey you have covered your back.

Most of all, remember that your copyright protection is who you tell you idea to. Loose lips do sink ships, and a non-disclosure agreement is only as safe as the person who signs it. Without more details on exactly what you are doing, it is impossible to give you any viable advice accounting for the individual facts in your unique circumstance. If you want to post back with some general ideas about what you have going on, without giving the baby out with the bathwater, I can maybe help you a little more.

Art

Ad astra per aspera - it's a hard road to the stars

Nope, my question is as naive as it comes. All I have is a company name
that I would like to use someday. It seems the best solution for someone
in my case is to use my real name until I get some cash. At least no one
can hopefully steal that.


Wayfarer

Wayfarer:

the way i did it was i went to http://www.bizfilings.com/

they handle every state, the whole process was simple and
takes about a month, and saves a lot of trips to numerous
states offices...
as far as taxes, accounting.... Turbo Tax for small business works for me every year, and Quick Books works also. simple keep track of what you spend and bring in. if things get complicated consult the appropriate professional.


Viktor Barron