Hi there, I am choosing a business name and domain name for my company and I need some guidance regarding the legal matters with the business and domain names. Suppose if the legally registered company's name are Viva, Harvest, Heritage, Dell etc and can I make my company name and domain names with the following combinations. Company Name URL Viva Web Solutions www.vivawebsolutions.com Harvest Web Solutions www.harvestwebsolutions.com Heritage Web Solutions www.heritagewebsolutions.com Dell Web Solutions www.dellwebsolutions.com By making the above combinations are there any copyrights or trademark infringements or issues. Can I use any of the above combinations without any problem in future or if there are problems then how can I avoid them. I will really appreciate any help in this matter. Best Regards bushib
Hi, Regarding trademarks, they typically only limit companies from doing a similar business using confusingly similar names. If you used a trademark for a completely different purpose this will probably not violate trademark law. However, there are also fair business practice laws that prevent companies from using the good name/hard work of another company for profit. I have done more research on trademark law but very little on any fair business practice law. You could probably find much more information by researching this case, Dell (the company) VS Paul Dell (the web designer): http://pauldell.blogspot.com/ I hope you found at least some of this useful. Remember, nothing I wrote should be taken as the legal advice of an attorney and should be reviewed by one. -- Nathan Enns
I think you can start a business with an existing business name if it is in an entirely different business category. However it usually comes down to who has more money for the best lawyers.