Small Vent..or Rant As It Were.. Lol
Business By muddpuppy Updated 29 Dec 2009 , 11:59pm by CoutureCake
Ok, so normally when I come across a random "stolen name" or "same name" thread I ignore it. I didn't really feel it was a big big deal. Don't get me wrong, I mean, I bet it is a little irritating when you've named your company, just for example - Sugarville Sweets and Cake Design, and someone else names thier business Sugarville Cakes... I just though oh well.... until today! I often google my company name (a legally registered name and a .com that I own) just to see how many results I get and lo and behold someone has purchased a website name exactly like mine word for word but with an "s" on the end!! lmao... that's what I get for not letting it bother me! At least we're at opposite ends of the continent! lol
Well it sounds like you in good humor about it, so that shows you have a great attitude! 
And like you said, opposite ends of the continent. I think it's worse from somebody when they are in the same state, let alone same county!
Don't let it bother you, especially if it is a company that isn't even in the same country as you are. They are in no way your competition, so it really isn't a big deal. If they were in the same state or city as you, then I could see some reason to be upset about it because potential customers could be getting you confused, but that's not going to be the case with someone across the continent from you. I've checked my business name (which I thought I was being original when I registered it with my state) only to find that there are at least 3 other companies with the exact same name as mine, but they are all in 3 different countries than I am, so I'm not worried about any effects having the same name does on my business or on theirs. Honestly, it would be really hard to try to come up with a name for a cake or cookie business that never has existed.
I've thought it would be so sweet to have my own cake business, and so I came up with the name "The Sweet Life" thinking that's exactlly what it woud be for me......lo and behold the name was taken (by a very prominent cake decorator nonetheless)..............so I searched on and came up with different names.......then I thought, I have plans to renovate my garage into my "cake shop" and so I wanted to call it "The Gourmet Garage" turns out the name was already taken (not in my state but someone had the .com and so forth) so I decided on "Tina's Sugar Shack" thinking the garage would be like a little shack..........so I was settled on this name for over a year, got the .com and business cards etc. then I realize Sharon Zambito's cake business is "Sharon's Sugar Shack" and her screen name on here is Sugarshack! I felt terrible, but had already advertised the name....now granted we're in 2 different states and our names aren't exactlly the same , but I felt bad.........mainly for her, that people might confuse ME with her and think her cakes stink! LOL
Like was mentioned above there is NO WAY to ensure that your name is "original" I thought my names were original and obviously they weren't!
hint: for not a whole lot of money, often under $10/year, in many cases, you can buy up all the similar names you can think of and "park" them, meaning you own, but they are inactive sites.
Usually, inactive names can be set to do an automatic redirect to the primary name you use.
small example:
www.thenewyorktimes.com
www.newyorktimes.com
www.nyt.com
all redirect to www.nytimes.com -- the main web site for The New York Times
when buying up names take into account:
use of dashes and underscore:
Sweeties Cake Designs
Sweeties Cake_Designs
Sweeties Cake-Designs
Sweeties-Cake Designs
Sweeties-Cake_Designs
Sweeties-Cake-Designs
Sweeties_Cake Designs
Sweeties_Cake-Designs
Sweeties_Cake_Designs
are all unique and different sites not to mention the use of the every popular "s" already mentioned.
I've thought it would be so sweet to have my own cake business, and so I came up with the name "The Sweet Life" thinking that's exactlly what it woud be for me......lo and behold the name was taken (by a very prominent cake decorator nonetheless)..............so I searched on and came up with different names.......then I thought, I have plans to renovate my garage into my "cake shop" and so I wanted to call it "The Gourmet Garage" turns out the name was already taken (not in my state but someone had the .com and so forth) so I decided on "Tina's Sugar Shack" thinking the garage would be like a little shack..........so I was settled on this name for over a year, got the .com and business cards etc. then I realize Sharon Zambito's cake business is "Sharon's Sugar Shack" and her screen name on here is Sugarshack! I felt terrible, but had already advertised the name....now granted we're in 2 different states and our names aren't exactlly the same , but I felt bad.........mainly for her, that people might confuse ME with her and think her cakes stink! LOL
Like was mentioned above there is NO WAY to ensure that your name is "original" I thought my names were original and obviously they weren't!
LOL The "Gourmet Garage" is a grocery store right around the corner from my work in NYC.
I checked the Internet and state records when I chose my name "The Sweet Slice". I registered my name, started setting up my website, etc and my husband says, I found your website but that's not your cakes. Sure enough when I pulled it up, there was another cake shop with my name! It is in another state and I considered changing my name but decided against it. I already have everything set up.
I've thought it would be so sweet to have my own cake business, and so I came up with the name "The Sweet Life" thinking that's exactlly what it woud be for me......lo and behold the name was taken (by a very prominent cake decorator nonetheless)..............so I searched on and came up with different names.......then I thought, I have plans to renovate my garage into my "cake shop" and so I wanted to call it "The Gourmet Garage" turns out the name was already taken (not in my state but someone had the .com and so forth) so I decided on "Tina's Sugar Shack" thinking the garage would be like a little shack..........so I was settled on this name for over a year, got the .com and business cards etc. then I realize Sharon Zambito's cake business is "Sharon's Sugar Shack" and her screen name on here is Sugarshack! I felt terrible, but had already advertised the name....now granted we're in 2 different states and our names aren't exactlly the same , but I felt bad.........mainly for her, that people might confuse ME with her and think her cakes stink! LOL
Like was mentioned above there is NO WAY to ensure that your name is "original" I thought my names were original and obviously they weren't!
LOL The "Gourmet Garage" is a grocery store right around the corner from my work in NYC.
That's funny! All I know is....I remind people it's TINA'S sugar shack, a couple customers just looked up sugarshack.com and came up with.......well.....NOT cakes!
My DH came up with Hearts Desire many years ago when I thought it might actually happen. That could have been a disaster, way too many Adult sites linked to that LOL
Don't worry, it's when you get the phone call that someone in another state wants to order a cake from you is using your business name... and they INSIST that "they got your number from the website and Joey brought one of YOUR cakes into class for his birthday and I want to order one!"... But they don't take the HINT that you're in another state 400+ miles away!!!!
Or... The time that I got a call from someone who ordered a cake topper from a less than reputable company with a similar name and hadn't gotten it yet when she had ordered and paid for it 6mo previous... And to explain that "sorry, I don't make toppers, I don't even take credit cards..."
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