Hi, this isn't so much on webhosting, but business on the whole. How do you check if a particular name is being copyrighted? any websites to check on this?

Perhaps you meant "trade marked" rather than "copyrighted" the company name . If you are in the USA, check out this official site http://www.uspto.gov/ . Search for trademarks (live and dead) is free of charge.

Ah, alright, thanks.

This is an interesting topic.

I remember a few years ago I tried to be an upstart and pick a fight with a fellow host for a contravention of my domain. His domain name sounded exactly the same to be pronounced but was spelt differently. At the time I thought I had a case however some wiseguy smartly pointed out that a site called mycrowsoft would also have a fighting chance of survival. I dropped my smart idea of a fight and left it at that.

I learnt a valuable lesson that month. I still don't agree that it's fair to copy someone else's name with a different spelling but in the end I decided that it could be very costly all the way around and could destroy many good things. I left it alone to be as it was (though I will point out that my domain was registered first). Now for some stupid reason I even find myself wishing the opther guy good luck!

My own worst enemy sometimes.

-Turboz