Hey i have a question on trademarking?

when i searched on the site for this name( i don't wanna say the name). anyway when i searched on thissite http://www.uspto.gov/ it showed that it wasn't taken as a trademark. So the name were using is used all around NJ and it isn't trademarked. So can my friend and I use it for a franchise name? Also can we sue those 70 stores for using our name with out our consent. Will we be able to do that after we trademark the name and design?