Starting business, want to know if name i have is already in use?

From: http://www.in.gov
Online Services
Searches
Business Services
http://www.in.gov/sos/services.html
This should help.

um dont know what its called over there but its called department of fair trading over here

I listed some links where you can do some preliminary name checking. However, please be aware that this is merely scratching the surface of what's out there.

Only comprehensive research will tell you if the name is truly available. But, these links are free & a great place to start, so I'd try them out first.

There are other sites that offer free searching capabilities in conjunction with their commercial services, so I'm not able to post those links due to the Yahoo! TOS. You'll also want to check domain names & yellow pages, so simply do a search for "free domain name search" and "national yellowpages" and the appropriate links will pop up.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

GO TO THE INDIANA SECRETARY OF STATES WEBSITE AND CLICK ON CORPORATIONS ONLINE AND IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO TYPE IN THE NAME YOU ARE CONSIDERING AND WILL ALSO LOCATE ANY MATCHES IF THAT NAME IS ALREADY IN USE.

In 1966, the big Holiday Inn brought legal action against the Holiday Inn Guest House of Folly Beach, South Carolina. The big Holiday ended up paying the dying business over 2.5 million dollars, for use of their name

If you have a small to medium size business, the name will be OK if the other business in another county has the same name with a different icon. You may not use the name Westinghouse. The big boys are under the heading of corporate law.

Small to medium business, you need to get a local lawyer who has the specialty. The web is a bad place to get the information you need, because they are not case friendly.

mykrazytees gave the best answer here-- nothing more to say.