(OT?) Using "American" in business name

You want a session with Bill's leg breakers? You don't know what he's like?

See

BLAMM!

-- _____ _ _ |_ _| | | | | | | __ _ _ __ ___ | |__| | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ | | / _` | '_ ` _ \\ | __ |/ _ \\| '_ ` _ \\ / _ \\ '__| _| |_ | (_| | | | | | | | | | | (_) | | | | | | __/ | |_____| \\__,_|_| |_| |_| |_| |_|\\___/|_| |_| |_|\\___|_| __ ____ / _| | _ \\ ___ | |_ | |_) | ___ _ __ __ _ / _ \\| _| | _ < / _ \\| '__/ _` | | (_) | | | |_) | (_) | | | (_| |_ \\___/|_| |____/ \\___/|_| \\__, (_) __/ | |___/

Everyone is missing the key item in all of this.

Find a unique name to use as a URL. 'Kodak' is a great name. 'Computer' is terrible.

Otherwise you will be too hard to find and you will vanish in a mass of homonyms and homophones.

skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...

The lusers. If you find a really stupid question, perhaps even unrelated to the group it posted in (and the other groups it is inveriably crossposted to) the odds are that it's origin is Google Groups.

If you make clothing out of soft microfiber you might have a point, but I'd still like to see you tell BG he can't sue you.

- YD.

Hello Michael,

Maybe that's why the investment section of BofA is called "Banc of America" :-)))

But you are right, our church is involved in the El Dorado Food Bank.

The local "Vets Helping Vets" office, which is a Veterans Administration section chartered to locate and aid Veterans with problems gets quite a few calls from people who get quite upset when they can't tell the person who the best vet is for their pet, or livestock.

That is life saving work for the people you help. :)

The courts would throw it out if you could prove you never had to reboot your soft microfiber underware. ;-)

How do we know what they call themselves? Can you read all that crap on the boxes? Can you find a PC that isn't all Chinese without looking really hard? The sheet metal doesn't count.

That is called "Marketing", by trying to make the stupid name stick in your head. I figure that if they can't spell, they can't sell. Not to me, anyway.

How about WhirledWide? Something involving fat chicks on roundabouts?

-- _____ _ _ |_ _| | | | | | | __ _ _ __ ___ | |__| | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ | | / _` | '_ ` _ \\ | __ |/ _ \\| '_ ` _ \\ / _ \\ '__| _| |_ | (_| | | | | | | | | | | (_) | | | | | | __/ | |_____| \\__,_|_| |_| |_| |_| |_|\\___/|_| |_| |_|\\___|_| __ ____ / _| | _ \\ ___ | |_ | |_) | ___ _ __ __ _ / _ \\| _| | _ < / _ \\| '__/ _` | | (_) | | | |_) | (_) | | | (_| |_ \\___/|_| |____/ \\___/|_| \\__, (_) __/ | |___/

Assuming your business (and theirs) is limited to intra-state commerce. Something that is less and less likely in the internet era.

Big national companies register their name in each of the 50 states plus DC, PR, etc. There are law firms that specialize in that kind of stuff. Again, trademark is an independent thing.

I've heard of small companies being offered $$$$ (carrot) or being sued (stick) when they were using a name that encroached on the desired usage of a nationwide company.

Free legal advise is worth just what you paid for it. I seriously doubt any royalties would need to be paid, but you would do well to consult with an attorney, especially since you will probably need one for other aspects of starting up your business anyway.

Chrysler tried to force an old man to change the name of his bar from "Jeep's". After it made the national news they backed down, and agreed to let him keep the name on the condition that the bar couldn't be sold or transferred to anyone else, and use the name "Jeep's".

As I said, "Generally true." It varies from state to state. For example, the Delaware General Corporation Law appears (from my brief look) to only prohibit the use of the word "trust" See GCL Sec. 395. On the other hand, the New York Business Corporation Law, Sec. 301, contains a laundry list of prohibited words, for example, Sec.

and Sec. 301(a)(5)(B) prohibits the use of the following phrases: acceptance, endowment, loan, annuity, fidelity, mortgage, assurance, finance, savings, bank, guaranty, surety, benefit, indemnity, title, bond, insurance, trust, casualty, investment, underwriter, doctor, lawyer

The prohibition is lifted if the corporation in question is regulated by the appropriate governmental agencies.

And, as should be apparent from that list, the word "bank" cannot be used (unless the corporation has the approval of the superintendent of banks, which must be attached to the certificate of incorporation, BCL Sec. 301(a)(5)(B), flush language).

I'm not about to do a 50-state survey on whether the word "bank" may, or may not, be used by a corporation. I would note, however, that even in New York, the statute provides that the name cannot be used unless the approval of the superintendent of banks is attached - that suggests to me that the banking department has the discretion to authorize a non-bank business to use the word "bank" in its name if it is otherwise clear from the context that the entity is not engaged in the business of banking; e.g., I would generally presume that "The Blood Bank" would be permitted to use that name in New York. However, this is just speculation on my part; unless I get paid for it, I'm not going to research the issue in depth.

'nuff said?

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

A guy named Mike Rowe set up a website

Microsloth sued him and threatened him until he abandoned it. But they didn't register the name and now it takes you to some Australian page. Go figure.