Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Use of Corporate names

If I understand what you're asking, I'd say the answer is "perhaps." Keep in mind that we have a 1st Amendment guarantee of free speech. Only certain uses or mentions of corporate or brand names are protected. The protections are pretty broad, but not all-inclusive. Here's what you CAN'T do:

(1) Use a brand name (trademark or service mark) in a way that suggests your product or service is, or is related to, the trademarked product or service (such as, for example, hinting that you are an authorized reseller or provider of the branded product or service).

(2) Use copyrighted text, pictures, etc. even if you modify their appearance.

(3) There is also a principle in trademark law that one cannot "dilute" the value of a trademark by unfairly and injuriously associating a possibly inferior product or service with the trademarked product of service. So, for example, if you advertised your express dry-cleaning service as "as fast as FedEx" it's possible that FedEx's lawyers might object even though you were in an entirely different line of business.

(4) Genuinely unfounded and malicious attacks on a brand or corporate name, without news value, may be illegal defamation, but ordinary use in an article is probaly not going to fall into that category.

Consequently, I cannot assure you that using a corporate name is never going to get you a protest or lawsuit threat, but in general there is no prohibition ahainst mention of a corporation or a brand in a well-intentioned article.

Re: Use of Corporate names

If I understand what you're asking, I'd say the answer is "perhaps." Keep in mind that we have a 1st Amendment guarantee of free speech. Only certain uses or mentions of corporate or brand names are protected. The protections are pretty broad, but not all-inclusive. Here's what you CAN'T do:

(1) Use a brand name (trademark or service mark) in a way that suggests your product or service is, or is related to, the trademarked product or service (such as, for example, hinting that you are an authorized reseller or provider of the branded product or service).

(2) Use copyrighted text, pictures, etc. even if you modify their appearance.

(3) There is also a principle in trademark law that one cannot "dilute" the value of a trademark by unfairly and injuriously associating a possibly inferior product or service with the trademarked product of service. So, for example, if you advertised your express dry-cleaning service as "as fast as FedEx" it's possible that FedEx's lawyers might object even though you were in an entirely different line of business.

(4) Genuinely unfounded and malicious attacks on a brand or corporate name, without news value, may be illegal defamation, but ordinary use in an article is probaly not going to fall into that category.

Consequently, I cannot assure you that using a corporate name is never going to get you a protest or lawsuit threat, but in general there is no prohibition ahainst mention of a corporation or a brand in a well-intentioned article.