it depends on what your partnership agreement said but ultimately you should be able to create or execute on your buy sell given the terms of your partnership agreement. He should also forfeit any stock shares issued. If none of that has been done if the partnership was never inked properly, then it would just take an attorney to draft the dissolution paperwork and take him off any shareholder docs, etc.

Yes. That is the whole purpose of the USPTO filing system. Whoever is first to file gets the mark. There is common law usage which they could argue but first to file is generally upheld.

I've never heard of this problem. Usually you need to tie a personal social to the ein. It is possible that since you have a Secretary of State number that we could use that but would have to dig into it.

That depends on what the bylaws say you can and can't do. There is a standard fiduciary duty of shareholders and if they aren't meeting that then yes you probably can but I would need more information.

This is a convoluted problem. I would have to read the contract to see what was outlined and speak with a CPA to determine tax liability. Generally you can close a company with the state and fed and pay pennies on the dollar by declaring bankruptcy if you are looking to get out of it altogether.

It depends on what your contract says and what you want to do. Ultimately you need to decide what you want and then we can work backwards from that. But no just having the conversation does not automatically oust you.

You should definitely have some sort of incorporation with a corporate book so that you are protected from liability should anything go wrong. The reasons you incorporate are for 1. liability purposes 2. tax purposes 3. it holds you out as a business much more professionally and will change how you treat the business as well. If you are looking to fundraise at some point I might suggest a corporation. you are looking at about $2,000 for incorporation, corporate book and veil protection which would include all of your by-laws, minutes, stock issuance, IRS docs, etc. Also prepare yourself to pay an annual LLC or Corp. fee of $800.

Creating a beautiful visual deck that shows the branding of the company, prior successes and of course core numbers on who your target audience is, how broad the reach is and how that creates benefit for the sponsor is key!