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From: levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Your [good] name
Message-ID: <555@ttrdc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Nov-85 01:12:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ttrdc.555
Posted: Sun Nov  3 01:12:14 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Nov-85 01:38:24 EST
References: <2395@brl-tgr.ARPA>
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Organization: AT&T, Computer Systems Division, Skokie, IL
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In article <2395@brl-tgr.ARPA>, wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) writes:
>What "rights" do you have with respect to your name? Are these any
>different if you have legally adopted a different name than the one on
>your birth certificate?
>
>For example, I understand that the trademark laws overrule your ability
>to use your name in the name of a business that you own. Even if you were
>born "Joe Standard", and you have documentary proof of thiry generations
>of people named "Standard" from whom you are descended, and you form an
>oil company, you cannot name this company "Standard Oil Company",
>because the rights to that name are already held by another entity. Is
>that correct? Any other details or legal points involved here?
>
WARNING AND DISCLAIMER--THIS IS LAYMAN SPECULATION ONLY---

Maybe this is in a different league, but I have seen a similar instance in
the Chicagoland area [Chicagoland is a wonderful euphemism for the Chicago
metro and surrounding suburban areas, but that's a different subject...] 
involving competing oriental rug dealerships owned by people with the same
last name.  The result is that they are called by different names [Schmoe
Brothers Inc. and A. B. Schmoe and Sons--I am obviously not using the real
name].  So if you are Joe Standard, while you undoubtedly couldn't call your
oil firm Standard Oil and get away with it, you might conceivably be allowed
to call it the "Joseph Standard Oil Company" or "Standard and Sons Oil
Company" or something in a similar vein which would be obviously
distinguishable from the other, older firm.  You might possibly expect quite
a legal battle, however, if you did.

It's not unheard of, incidentally, for firms in DIFFERENT business lines to
be called by a common name.  "Domino" is one such name.  Even then, there
has been trouble.  Domino Sugar sued Domino's Pizza some time ago on this
point.  In the defense, Domino's Pizza produced a list of a hundred or so
other firms that used "Domino" as part of their names, and argued that sugar
and pizza had nothing to do with one another (though I'm sure that health food
nuts would disagree :-).  I think the upstart, however, was that an agreement
was hammered out where Domino's Pizza would phase in a different name for
their franchises (if I be mistaken, somebody please correct).

>[discussion of written works using "fictional names"]
>-- would that
>slight misspelling of the name be enough for them to avoid liability?
>(Suppose it wasn't a public figure [I think special rules apply in those
>cases] -- suppose they do a defamatory story about a car dealer and name
>him "John Petersen", and you are a car dealer named "John Peterson"?)
>                ^                                               ^

I would hope at the least that the writer of such a story, if indeed the
coincidence WAS incidental and unintended, would perhaps publicly apologize for
the coincidence and certainly publicly point out clearly that a different firm
or party than the real one whose name was close to the fictional one named was
the firm or party intended.  If the writer was requested to do so by the
affected firm or party and refused, the writer might be in for quite a battle.

--WARNING AND DISCLAIMER--THIS IS LAYMAN SPECULATION ONLY

>Comments on this general topic are welcomed.
>Will Martin
-- 
 -------------------------------    Disclaimer:  The views contained herein are
|       dan levy | yvel nad      |  my own and are not at all those of my em-
|         an engihacker @        |  ployer or the administrator of any computer
| at&t computer systems division |  upon which I may hack.
|        skokie, illinois        |
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