Putting Trademark & Domain in Attorney's Name

[TomTees]

@Sagewing

Using a resident agent service to form a business will cost about $100 and will effectively conceal your address as viewed by the public. Using that business to register domains, etc. will further distance your physical address from the public records.

Using an attorney as resident agent is usually unnecessary for a small business and may not be cost effective. There is very little benefit to this unless your attorney is handling incoming correspondence for you - otherwise they would just be acting as an incredibly expensive private mailbox.

Well, the attorney I used before for my IT consulting business only charge me like $200 to be a Registered Agent/Office.

In that case, I have a P.O. Box, so he doesn’t handle any mail unless it has to go to a Physical Address/Registered Office (e.g. Letters from Secretary of State). And that is one reason the fee is so low.

I’m curious about this one. There is always debate about which is best and never a clear answer. What makes you think an s-corp is better for legal purpose? and tax?

Well, I’m not sure about S-Corp vs LLC, and I am by no means a lawyer, but this is what I know (and believe to be correct)…

• A Corporation is a legal entity and treated like a “person” in the eyes of the law. So being incorporated insulates the Owners/Board of Directors, because the corporation can be sued and liable unless you are like Enron or BP or Goldman Sacs?! (Oh wait… this is America… Corporations are always right and blame free!!)

• Being an S-Corp is a tax designation from the IRS where all income passes directly through to the owner with single taxation as opposed to C-Corporations suffer from double taxation.

When IBM - as a C-Corp - makes $$$ they must pay the IRS, and then when the pay their employees, those employees must also pay taxes on their wages.

As an S-corp, all revenue passes straight through to the owner and you only taxes once on your individual tax return. (I’m not a CPA, so they may not be the best way toe explain it.)

So, in summary, being incorporated and applying for S-corp status serve to insulate you from being sued and liable (i.e. “limited liability”), and it also serves as a wicked tax shelter.

For instance, if I worked as W-2 contractor and bought Post-It notes it wouldn’t be tax deductible. But if I was an S-Corp (or technically a Sole Proprietor) and working on a 1099 basis, then I can right off the Post-It notes as a legitimate business expense.

Taxes 101:
Want to minimize your U.S. Tax Liability?
1.) Be poor
2.) Be rich
3.) Be a business

Anyways, back to recapture my thread!!

TomTees

[shadowbox]

@TomTees

And what about Domain Names?

(I know someone else posted earlier that “Administrator” was the Administrative Contact for Microsoft.com, but I have always been told you can’t do that…)

‘Administrative Contact’ is not the same as ‘Registrant’. The registrant is the legal owner of the domain (Microsoft), while the administrative contact is simply the person in charge of dealing with day to day admin of the domain ‘The Administrator’. Only the registrant name has any legal bearing.

I looked into this previously and can find no where in ‘.com rules’ that states that the admin contact must list an actual name. The important bit is that the address and email are valid as these may be used for contact.

Of course, you could put any old name for ‘admin’, who’d know who actually deals with your domain admin? There’s no way practical to verify this. Just make sure the address is correct.

[TomTees]

@shadowbox

‘Administrative Contact’ is not the same as ‘Registrant’. The registrant is the legal owner of the domain (Microsoft), while the administrative contact is simply the person in charge of dealing with day to day admin of the domain ‘The Administrator’. Only the registrant name has any legal bearing.

I looked into this previously and can find no where in ‘.com rules’ that states that the admin contact must list an actual name. The important bit is that the address and email are valid as these may be used for contact.

Okay, that is good to know.

But what about for the ‘Registrant’?

Can you use a Company Name or Corporation Name (instead of a person’s name)?

If I could register “MyDomainName.com” to “MyCompanyOrCorporationName” and use “MyCompanyOrCorporationName” as the ‘registrant’ and then use MyCompanyOrCorporationName’s Address then that would take care of my privacy concerns as far as domain names go. (Follow all of that?!)

(This also presupposes that “MyCompanyOrCorporationName” would have legal rights and ownership of “MyDomainName.com” and that since this would be an S-Corp, that would inturn make me the sole legal owner…)

TomTees

[Sagewing]

TomTees, I would recommend that you do a bit of research into how business entities are formed, taxes, and managed as well as how they perform with regards to liabilities issues.

An s-Corp may or may not be the ideal entity for your business, but based on some of your comments it might be wise to further investigate your options. Typically, the decision of which entity to form for a small business is based on the expected tax liability and convenience of operation in your state. The liability protection is generally adequate with either LLC or Corp, and relative privacy can be had with either.

Unless your attorney is extremely small business friendly I’d recommend that you consult with a CPA as well as the entity choice is largely related to your expected revenue and tax situatoin.

[TomTees]

I’ve had my own S-Corp for nearly a decade now and it has worked well for me. I know how it works.

Since this new venture is similar, there is no reason it won’t work equally well.

Regardless, my original post really has nothing to do with this.

I was merely asking if it is or is not possible to register a Trademark and Domain as a company.

TomTees