Copying a company’s name

[Brian Suh]

Trying.to start a clothing company and I named it to something awesome but I wasn’t surprised when someone else took the name. It’s not a big company but should I ditch the name and find a new one? I really REALLy like it and it’s not too big that multiple people would want the name. Should I not even start the company using the name because that company could potentially sue or should I rather ask for forgiveness than permission

 

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[Xeon]

Trying.to start a clothing company and I named it to something awesome but I wasn’t surprised when someone else took the name. It’s not a big company but should I ditch the name and find a new one? I really REALLy like it and it’s not too big that multiple people would want the name. Should I not even start the company using the name because that company could potentially sue or should I rather ask for forgiveness than permission

This is the kind of thing that will give you sleepless nights and makes you feel like you're on needles half the time, especially when your company does get successful in future, and the other company gets jealous and sues the crap out of you. So, my advice is.....don't. Unless the other company is a small company far out there from your country (e.g: you're in USA and they're somewhere in Mongolia / Russia / Bosnia / Chile / Vietnam).
Give yourself some time and use more creativity, think broader, you'll be able to come up with even better names. I've been there.

I also like to search in the TESS -- Error (Basic Word Mark Search) to see if the name I want is taken.
Or if you're hardcore like me, go to https://namecheckr.com and see if your company name is already taken across the .com domain and a ton of other major sites.