Legal Question in Business Law in Arizona

Similary named sm. business recv'd cease & desist from big corp. - Next Step?

We started our small business in Jan. 1997 - we

are a husband & wife design consultancy

working from our home. We received a

letter from a large corporation's lawyer stating that

their client ''recently learned'' of our

existence and that they are ''concerned that use of

the name, mark and domain name....gives rise to

consumer confusion as to the source...of your

business''. Our company names are similar but

we are a graphic design consultancy and they are

in the computer software business. The bottom

line is that they have asked us to ''immediately

stop'' using our name, mark & domain name. As

a graphic design business, our name and mark

are extremely important to us and we have name

equity in our field. Dumping our name, marketing

materials & business collateral is not a option we

really have --- beyond the loss of name

recognition which could devistate us, just the

cost of re-printing is prohibitive to us. Due to our

field of work, our business materials are very high

quality and costly. Any suggestions on how a very

small, resource-limited, home-based business

can approach this David & Goliath type of

situation? Are there any advocacy groups for

people in our situation?


Asked on 1/25/01, 1:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Charles Aspinwall Charles S. Aspinwall, J.D., LLC

Re: Similary named sm. business recv'd cease & desist from big corp. - Next Step

I recommend that you communicate with the company and offer to explore a good faith resolution satisfactory to both parties.

The expenses you mention will seem cheap if they sue you for misrepresentation or misleading advertising.

One of the possible solutions may be to alter, slightly, your materials and have the "goliath" pay for part or all of the new publications. There may be other options which, if not perfect, will operate to satisfy both of you.

Taking a hard line approach against a large corporation which has approached you in this manner is probably not the wisest thing to do at the outset. How can it hurt to communicate with them and see if they have suggestions which you could live with? Doing legal battle with them with or without the help of an advocacy group [I know of none] would certainly dent your operating budget beyond the problems you have mentioned, and then you might still have those.

Best of luck.

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Answered on 3/09/01, 11:30 am


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