I picked a name and someone else registered it before me

If it's an exact match on the state registry, your paper's dead in the water. The state doesn't care Who thought of it first in the shower.

That sucks. I had a client (not legal advice, I'm not a lawyer) who lost a name to a guy in a different county who filed literally a day earlier. There's no race except who hit submit.

Your paper's dead, but your trademark might not be. Did you actually use it in commerce yet? A state registration doesn't beat a federal mark if you were first in the market.

This is why you file a placeholder. I get being careful with privacy, but an anonymous LLC still needs a name on record. You can change the name after.

There's a service that'll do a name pre-check and reserve it for a few months for like $25. Would've saved you the grief.

Reservation only gets you so far. If the other guy already filed, he owns it. A reservation earlier might have tipped you off but wouldn't necessarily help now.

lol. I had the same thing happen. I just added "Holdings" and filed an hour later.

You can also check the Secretary of State business search for past names that were dissolved. Sometimes you find something almost identical that's free.

Honestly if they registered it and never use it, that's their problem. You might be able to petition for the name after a couple of years of non-use. But you'd need a lawyer for that ngl.

Name disputes at the LLC level are state-specific and generally not worth the filing fees unless you're talking about a brand worth real money.

I'd just file two backup names and move on. Not worth the headache.

Yeah. Also—if you really care about that exact name, consider a DBA or a subsidiary. You could use it as a trade name even if the LLC is something else.