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| | The Legal Needs Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Company Name :: Legal advice | Views: 340 | | Aug 23, 2006 3:22 pm | | Company Name :: Legal advice | # |
Tejas Arora | | We have a new startup which we are working to establish and get off the ground.
The company's name is same as 2 other companies in the US, although we are separately incorporated in India and Qatar, we see some name clashes in US.
What is the solution? Do we need to change our name to work in US.
Can we use strategies like XX IT Solutions instead of XX Software and XX Technolgies which are the other companies.
How are such name rules governed globally.
WOuld appreciate if anyone can guide me to some useful resources.
Cheers
TejasPrivate Reply to Tejas Arora | | Aug 23, 2006 4:03 pm | | re: Company Name :: Legal advice | # |
Michael Deans | | Tejas:
[Please note: I am dealing with this topic only on a hypothetical basis. If you have a real and actual problem, you should seek specific advice from a United States Trademark Attorney. I am only qualified for the UK and for Europe as a whole. I'd be glad to give you some names in the US if you wish, but if you have a Trademark Attorney in India they will probably already have contacts in the US.]
You must draw a distinction between Company Names and Trademark rights.
There is little or no property in a Name as such.
There may be numerous Companies with the same Name even within the United States, let alone in different countries. Thus, in the US, one Company may be incorporated in Delaware as XXX, Inc., and another may be registered in California with an identical names. However, you may not have exactly identical names registered in the same State.
Whatever the Names, problems may arise when they start to trade using their Names, and here you are concerned with Trademark rights, rather than Company Name Registration issues.
If they trade in connection with the same or similar Goods/Services and confusion may arise as a consequence of the use of the same or closely similar Names, then litigation is likely, and usually the Senior User will succeed in the jurisdiction concerned (which may be the whole of the US). That a Company is registered under a particular Name in India or in Qatar will carry little weight in the United States, unless its reputation under that Name is so huge as to have extended to the United States.
Where the Goods/Services are sufficiently dissimilar, then even identical Names or Trademarks can be owned by entirely different parties. For example, in the UK, "Smiths" is owned by one business for snacks, another for alarm clocks, and a third for stationery and for newspaper distribution services, and they all happily coexist.
Regards
Michael Deans Private Reply to Michael Deans | | Aug 24, 2006 5:52 pm | | re: re: Company Name :: Legal advice | # |
Tejas Arora | | Thanks a lot for your advice Michael.
Do you know of any online directories where I can check trademark listings in US and Europe
Rgds,
TejasPrivate Reply to Tejas Arora | | Aug 24, 2006 8:19 pm | | re: re: re: Company Name :: Legal advice | # |
Michael Deans | | Certainly.
You can find European Community Trademarks (CTMs) in the CTM Online Database at http://oami.eu/en/default.htm
You can find US Trademarks at http://www.uspto.gov by following the links to Trademarks and Search Trademarks
However, three words of warning:
1) The US is a Common Law country. Trademark Rights arise primarily through use. Registration merely makes them easier to licence otr litigate. For full availability clearance, you might need to do a Common Law Search, which would involve going to one of the big searching organisations such as Thomson or Corsearch. Such Searches are not cheap.
2) In Europe, Trademark rights can also be obtained in individual countries by National Registrations. In a few countries such as the UK they can also arise by use under the Common Law as in the US.
3) Under the Paris Convention, an Application may be filed in any Convention country within 6 months of the first Application in a Convention country. This means that future Trademark rights could be obtained in US or EU on the basis of an Application filed in almost any other country anytime within the past 6 months, and those US or EU rights would effectyively be back-dated to the date of Application in that other country.
As you'll have gathered from this, Trademark Searching is a bit of a mine-field. You can only do your best, but every Search should be served up to a client with a health warning.
Regards
Michael Deans Private Reply to Michael Deans | | Aug 25, 2006 6:49 pm | | re: Company Name :: Legal advice | # |
Pravin Jha | | Tejas,
I have gone through your querry and reply of Michael. Basically he is right when he says that the company's name and trade mark are two different aspects. Legally speaking, registration of company name is a country specific subject and there is no international treaty on te hsubject. Thus, there can be compay with same name in different countries. However, the problem would start once you try to get a trade mark or intoduce same/similar goods/services in the market. All the countires who are signatory of Geneva Convention and Berne Convention protect the Trade Mark, even if it has been registered in other country. Thus, even if you want to get trade mark registered in India, the Trade Mark Office In India would also conduct internationl trade mark search first before granting you vertificate for the same.
However, in case of registration of Company, the ROC searches it database consisting of names of company registered under Companies Act, 1956 only.
As far as your querry is concerned, it is too vague for me to give any specific advise. I need more details before I can give you any specific opinion.
I am a lawyer based in New Delhi. If you are in Delhi, then I think we can meet and I would be able to advise you in a proper manner.
Pravin JhaPrivate Reply to Pravin Jha | | |
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