This is a little bit of a complex question, so use your imagination if it doesn’t make sense. I’m at a stage of my game where I would like but buy a domain, start a blog for the development progress, and look into trademarking and copyrighting. a lot of this hinges on coming up with a name and creating a logo.
Do you guys have a process you go through to make sure you don’t get into legal trouble? what precautions should I take?
Good question…
Google. We recently had this issue. We wrote out a list of game names we liked, about 10-15, & then googled every variation of those names we could. It’s amazing how many lawyers firms, dry cleaners, & advertising agencies have names that were exactly the same as the names we liked or were so close to them that we had to rule the name out to prevent any possibility of confusion of domain names.
Once we had 4 names we thought were ok we spoke to a trademark person who, in the first free hour, ruled out 2 more. Then in our first paid hour he did a quick check of the remaining 2, said one was risky & so we proceeded with the last remaining one & got the trademark.
Domain names are pretty cheap. You can always buy another one when the name changes. And its pretty trivial to redirect your old domain name to your new domain. So any decision you make now is not set in stone.
Also developing a logo can be its own interesting development post.
So really all you have at the moment are excuses for not starting your development blog. You don’t actually have any valid reasons not to start the blog. And be sure not to make the blog an excuse not to start the game.
…hah. Good old cart before the horse. We all make the band name before we even have one practice session. We buy the fancy equipment before we even know the basics. I think it’s a western culture thing. Our first instinct is to buy something. Our last instinct is to work diligently, because our brain hasn’t been wired to tell us that hard work produces results… a weird side effect of instant gratification as a way of life.
Just make a game, that’s the crux of all of this… the name will come to you if the game is substantial. It’s much easier to name something that means something to you.
Anyway, I’m clawing my way out of this rut, finally. I like what I’m working on now. It’s neat. And hey… the name just came to me, and I like the name also. Blog, WIP thread, design document… nothing means nothing if there’s nothing playable, and even that means nothing unless it’s fun… even if it’s only fun to you.
You do not really need to create a trademark or a copyright law, if you want your branding stuff to be too common for others to copy from your company, you do not need a lawsuit against the other people.
Hopefully the New Media Rights youtube channel will help.
They said you do not need to pay and register a trademark law, because as soon as you have a idea is ready a trademark law. And do not create a game company name that is similar to another company to confuse the other players by cloning a game.
For the record, this post is mostly wrong.
Bringing a lawsuit with an unregistered trademark is difficult, and your options are pretty limited. Neither copyright not trademarks protect ideas, only the expression of the idea is protected. So you aren’t protected until you actually make something.
There is such a thing as a “Working Name.”
Pretty much, it’s a name that you never, ever intend to put out to market. The point of this name is so that you can talk about the game without using nebulous/meaningless terms like “The Game” (which, is a bad episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.)
I’ve started using this practice, and it helps. I don’t intend to make a proper name for my current work, until I’ve iterated my current idea far more than I already have.
Domain names are not important. I thought they were at first, until slowly, over time, I began to realize that what’s really important is making a good product.
On the other hand, PRODUCT NAMES ARE HUGELY IMPORTANT! Take time, go through hundreds of iterations, sit on it a LONG time. Share it with others, say it out loud, listen for people’s gut reaction. And, I suggest you start by reading, ‘MADE TO STICK’ by Chip and Dan Heath. It will explore the key things that make a title, a brand, or a message sticky.
Gigi
I usually end up using the WIP name since I can’t figure out anything better in the end… as an example my most recent game Loot Burn Kill Repeat. (Project name based on the core elements of the game, you collect loot, torch things with special abilities, and kill stuff… then repeat!) 
But in general, something that bring the mind of the reader to a hint of the content of the game? After all any players are most likely to find the game by reading the title in a list of billions of other games so something that sums it up or hint something about the game could help people sort out if it might be of interest? (Lots of question marks 'cause I still am not sure if it’s a good approach but it’s one way to do it atleast 
)