But selecting the right company name takes more than merely coming up with something catchy. A wise entrepreneur will take appropriate steps to ensure the moniker they’ve selected isn’t being used by another company before investing time and money on marketing the company and its name. Likewise, once they’ve narrowed their company name search to just a few options, it is imperative the business owner take appropriate measures to protect the name they ultimately select.

According to Joseph Dreitler, a partner with the Columbus-based intellectual property law firm of Dreitler True, “trademark lawyers buy commercial trademark searches as part of a clearing a name.” Those searches include trade names, state trademarks, business, corporate and domain names, to name a few.

To initiate protection of a company name, the moniker must be registered with the Secretary of State’s office where the company is incorporated. Unfortunately, says, Dreitler, “States are terrible about what names they will incorporate. They do not look at any other state records.” On several occasions in his four-decades-long legal career, Dreitler has seen situations where a slight nuance in one word of a company name has provided enough of a change for the secretary of state’s office to approve the name, even when a similarly named entity already exists in that state. Another examination secretarys of state offices do not undertake when conducting corporate name searches includes whether any trademarks exist, laments Dreitler.

Because these searches aren’t exhaustive, it is likely two people in two different states will give their businesses the same name. “Until they come in contact [with one another] business-wise, there is no conflict,” says Dreitler.

That is, notes Dreitler, until lawyers get involved.

And, with the advent of technology and so much business being conducted online, the likelihood that two businesses with the same name will eventually compete against one another, causing customer confusion and perhaps reputational damage, will occur.

Say two companies located in two different states share the same name. If neither has registered a trademark, each can operate in their own location without issue. However, if, for example, an Ohio company does not hold Ohio trademark protection but does own a federal trademark, and a second company uses the same business name in another state, the Ohio-based entity can sue to bar the infringer from using the company name.

Dreitler expresses dismay at the lax research methods utilized by state secretarys of state when they’re investigating prior trademarks, trade names and even corporate names.

“This is a joke,” says Dreitler, who tells people who registered a corporate name through a Secretary of State that one day, they may receive a Cease and Desist letter from a prior user of a similar name. “I tell them they probably could have gotten approval to name their entity ‘The Coca Cola Company of Columbus’ through the Secretary of State and then I can tell you the name of a lawyer in Atlanta (where Coca-Cola is based), when they come across you, will demand you change your name today or sue you tomorrow!” he says.

“The point is, Secretary of States offices let through names that are way too close. It means nothing legally that a Secretary of State let it through,” says Dreitler.

However, if entrepreneurs conduct trademark and company name searches for themselves, “they get what they pay for,” says Dreitler. “If they are not trademark lawyers, they have no clue how to determine if their name is infringing.”

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Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer. She tweets as @girlwithapen.