AHello, I am considering a new business venture. I hope I make sense asking this, so here it goes. I read on FB someone (we will call "A") had an issue with someone (we will call B) else stealing "A's" business name even though "A" clearly had that business name for years. So "B" trade marked "A's" business name and shut down "A's" websites."A" lost all her customer info., Pictures, and customer reviews and such. And websites they had up to promote their business. So my question is simple, to prevent this from happening to me should I trade mark my business name and copyright it? I know how women can be and some are devious especially when it comes to cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, and cookies. I've seen it bring out the good and bad online. So to avoid losing all my hard work should I trade mark and copyright my business name first?

Sorry I'm new at this and I'd hate for this to happen to me.

AThat story makes no sense. You can't shut down someone's web site and cause them to lose all their pictures and customer info by trademarking a name that's already in use. There is a mechanism for requesting content to be taken down if it violates your copyright, but there is also an appeals process so it would be trivial to have the site restored (if the takedown was successful in the first place).

As long as you are licensed to do business under your business name (usually from your city) and have filed for a fictitious business name if applicable (usually from the county) you should be fine. If you are planning on selling your products nationally it might be worth it to get a trademark, but otherwise it's probably not necessary.

My advice: don't believe everything you read on FB.

AThank you for your response. I don't usually believe everything on FB. However, since I'm new at this and unfamiliar when it comes to starting a business and what the "legal" entanglements are I figured asking a question and giving a reason for my question is always the best route. So thank you for your response.

jason is right... just think of membership store "Sam's".  They, I am sure wanted sams.com   but someone had it, and wouldn't sell it, so they are samsclub.com.

They only other problem is if I purposely misrepresent myself to be part of the "real" Sam's Club business, if I am not. 

That could happen is someone filed a DMCA request with the ISP and filed false information about owning a trademark. They tend to jump the gun and just take the website down without investigating anything since they don't have to. They would have written to the website owner and told her that someone had filed a complaint and allowed her to respond. Once she responded and showed that she had been using the name the site would go right back up.

Of course, Jason is right about not being able to trademark a name that someone else has been using. If someone trademarked a name and told someone who'd been using it to stop, all the other person would have to do would be to show that they'd been using the name before it was trademarked.

AThank you! I have been speaking with the baker in question and she's already suing the other party. I can't debulge her name or the business in question per the request of her attorney. I really love her work and she's a big part of my influence into cake decorating among others. I just wouldn't want this happening to me, especially out of spite.