Can I press charges when someone copied my business plan and plagiarized my business name and logo design?

I believe the police might suggest to you this is a civil, not a criminal matter.

You can't press charges against anyone - only law enforcement can do that. If you reported it to the police, who are the ones who decide whether or not to refer it to the DA for prosecution, they wouldn't, because this isn't criminal matter, and doesn't hurt anyone but you. It's a civil matter that you'd have to hire a civil litigator to pursue. It does sound like you had an oral partnership contract with this person, and you'd have breach of partnership and breach of fiduciary duty claims, among others against him for taking your business ideas which you shared with him with the understanding that you were a partnership. It's unclear what you registered and if you have any federal trademark rights to the name, since those are registered with the USPTO, not the state and not the IRS, and it's not clear if actually used the TM in commerce. It's also not clear if you have any rights to the clothing designs, since clothing designs are not usually copyrightable. Ideas in general aren't copyrightable, and he took your ideas and did something with them. However, you still may have partnership claims, and should see a civil/business litigator ASAP. Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Your only possible recourse is to retain an IP lawyer to assert civil claims. However, this may be hard in these circumstances. In general, intellectual property laws do not protect mere ideas or business plans. If you share business plans with someone, you can require that they enter into non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. However, in the absence of such an agreement, persons with whom you share your plans and ideas have no obligation to maintain confidentiality. Further, although you formed a corporation and registered a domain name, it seems that you never actually commenced use of your name in commerce--i.e., your ideas didn't get very far. And you did not register your logo or business brand name as a trademark. If you had been engaging in business under a trademark, you might have had a claim for common law trademark infringement. But since you never used the trademark except in the planning stages of your business, it might be difficult to prove a common law trademark infringement claim, You also did not register your drawings, logos, art work or web-site under federal copyright laws, so you commence suit for copyright infringement---in short, you may be out of luck here. This is a great lesson for people who want to start a business and work with partners/friends/associates. It is vitally important that you obtain the advice of legal counsel before taking steps to start a business. Legal counsel would have told you that before you share your ideas with anyone, make sure you enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Legal counsel also might have suggested that you and your friend enter into a partnership agreement or shareholders/investors' agreement. Further, legal counsel would have suggested that you protect yourself by filing trademark and copyright registrations as appropriate. Because you did none of these things, you now will have a very hard time successfully asserting legal claims. The first thing anyone should do when they think about starting a business is retain and consult with counsel about how you can protect your interests in the situation. Legal issues are complicated and you cannot "do it yourself". Successful small business owners recognize that they need to have a lawyer on retainer to advise them as legal issues arise. One final comment---one of the problems that you would face if you tried to pursue this matter now is proving that you have been damaged by these events. In order to pursue legal claims, it is not enough to assert that you have hurt emotionally, or that someone stole your ideas. Rather, you must quantify with specificity the dollar amount of injury that you suffered. It is not clear to me that from a legal perspective, you suffered any economic injury in this situation. You never started your business---you were just thinking about it. Thus, your business did not lose customers, suppliers, or other tangible opportunities because of what happened here. Further, nothing would stop you from engaging in a new competing business that uses your original ideas (although you might need to change your trademark and tradename). Thus, however frustrated you may be, it is hard to see that you suffered any real economic loss here---at least an economic loss that a court would deem sufficiently tangible to form the basis for an award of damages.