QUESTION: What legal considerations are there in chosing the seller name for my online store? I don't want to use someone else's name or a prohibited name.

ANSWER: Technically, there are some legal requirements for naming your business, but many of these rules are obsolete (and unobserved and unenforced) for online sellers.

In most counties in the United States, you're required to obtain a "fictitious name" permit if you're operating a business using a name other than your full legal name. (In some counties they call it a "doing business as" permit.)

In my county, for instance, the permit costs $20. After you submit the application, a clerk simply searches the county's files to ensure no other business is using the same name. Right off the bat, you can see this practice has limited value today -- as an online seller, you may be transacting worldwide, not just in your home county.

The original rationale for these regulations was to protect consumers from fly-by-night businesses. If someone purchased a product or service that turned out defective, the buyer might need to obtain the real name of the business owner to get a refund or sue.

With today's marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, resolving problems is usually much simpler. If a buyer is unhappy with a purchase, they e-mail the seller. If the seller doesn't respond appropriately, Amazon or Paypal makes the buyer whole. If a seller (or buyer) gets into disputes often enough, their trading privileges are revoked.

Another reason for "fictitious name" permits is to prevent new businesses from accidentally (or purposefully) using the name of an existing company, creating confusion. For example, in the Amazon context, if someone tried opening a seller account with the name "Barnes And Noble," that would be inappropriate -- they'd be taking advantage of an existing business name. On the other hand, somebody could probably open an account using the name "Joe's Place" even though there are probably 5,000 restaurants using that name -- but there's no chance anyone would confuse the online bookseller with the restaurants. And if someone on Amazon is already using the name "Joe's Place," Amazon's system would simply prevent new sellers from using the same name.

If you're a part-timer, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the choice of a seller name. A Google search on the name within quotation marks will probably show whether it's being used. If you accidentally began using an existing business name, you might receive a "cease and desist" letter from the company's lawyers, threatening to take you to court unless you stopped using the name.

One more consideration: If you think you might want to operate a store on your own Web site someday, you should check now to see if the domain name is available. You can search for available domain names at the Web sites of many host providers, including Register.com. Even if you don't decide to launch a Web site now, you can register the domain and pay a nominal fee to keep the name until you launch your site.