Is this a Name Violation??

[Bob]

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Windstone-Natural-Arches-Bridges-and-Other-Op_W0QQitemZ180268817363QQihZ008QQcategoryZ378QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

I just found it on e-bay

[Bob]

[BDW]

no it isn’t since it’s just “Windstone” not “Windstone Editions”

[Kujacker]

There is a place in town called “Windstone”. It’s actually kind of common.

[Kristen]

It’s also a common name for rocks shaped by wind, I think.

[Jodi]

There is also a golf course named Windstone.

[Kristen]

I think if they are in different selling categories (correct me if I’m wrong here) then having the same name (or parts thereof) is not illegal… for instance, there is a Visa truck rental company in Grande Prairie, that isn’t owned by the credit card company. And it’s a decent sized company. Not something small that slipped through the cracks.

For instance, if you had a Windstone books (which sells books), and Windstone editions (which sells statues and not books), then it’s not a problem for windstone books.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, this isn’t based off of a book with various laws in it. Just what I’ve seen over the years.

[Anonymous]

Corporation names have three pieces, called identifiers. One is the unique, one is the descriptor, and one is the legal element.

All three have to be satisfied and be different enough from others in a NUANS report.

So in my case, Wild Rose is the unique, Web Hosting is the descriptor, and Ltd. is the legal element.

There is a Wild Rose Web Design in Edmonton, and it’s a sole prop-ship, and if I wanted to, I could sue him for his name, because my element was corp registered first, and the companies are similar in nature.

When the companies are completely irrelevant in nature, as long as two out of three elements are different, there’s not much you can do about it. It has to be obviously confusing to a consumer in order to pursue it.

[Purplecat]

Ah, that makes sense…thank you. 🙂

[Rusti]

Snapdragon wrote:

Corporation names have three pieces, called identifiers. One is the unique, one is the descriptor, and one is the legal element.

All three have to be satisfied and be different enough from others in a NUANS report.

So in my case, Wild Rose is the unique, Web Hosting is the descriptor, and Ltd. is the legal element.

There is a Wild Rose Web Design in Edmonton, and it’s a sole prop-ship, and if I wanted to, I could sue him for his name, because my element was corp registered first, and the companies are similar in nature.

When the companies are completely irrelevant in nature, as long as two out of three elements are different, there’s not much you can do about it. It has to be obviously confusing to a consumer in order to pursue it.

You beat me to it.

I recently had this argument with my brother, who just graduated with his marketing degree and told me I needed to trademark “Steel Wolf Graphix” right away to stop someone else from using “Steel Wolf” ( I think he really liked the studio name).

I had to explain exactly this to him. If I went through the trouble, I could stop another design company from using ‘steel wolf’, but not, say, a racing team. Steel Wolf Graphix could not sue Steel Wolf Racing for their name.

It makes a certain amount of sense to me, why this might be.

[Anonymous]

In Alberta there are at least 50-75 companies named Wild Rose.

[Rusti]

Snapdragon wrote:

In Alberta there are at least 50-75 companies named Wild Rose.

Sheesh, popular name!!

[David]

Rusti wrote:

Snapdragon wrote:

In Alberta there are at least 50-75 companies named Wild Rose.

Sheesh, popular name!!

Here in Texas it’s “Desert Rose” that everyone thinks “Oooh, that would be a cool name for my business!”

Um… No offense intended to you, Snap. But, really, why “Wild Rose”? Or have you already told us that and I missed it?

[Starbreeze]

I did a search of Snap’s old posts and I can’t find an explanation for the name “Wild Rose”, but I could easily have missed it. Why did you pick that name, Snap? 🙂

[Kristen]

Other then the wild rose is Alberta’s flower? (that would explain the popularity)

Also curious as to Snaps reasoning…. no I didn’t hear it when I did my not so great videotaping of the server (hard to narrate when I don’t know what half the stuff is).

[Author]

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