Legal Question in Business Law in Minnesota

Some friends and I are looking at registering 2 LLP or LLC. We are concerned about the names.

There is a band out there with a name similar to what we want to name our company.

Call it Bob.

But we want to call our company Bob Studios. It has nothing to do with bands or music. A compeltely different type of business.

Is this ok? Or do we have to worry about name lawsuits?

The next question I have is we want to use a group of words used in an online video game. Call it ABC DEF. The words are used in a video game, but are not the name of the game or prodution company. We want to use those words for our company name such as, ABC DEF Productions. Will we have any legal implications on this?


Asked on 10/01/09, 2:35 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
David Anderson Anderson Business Law LLC

You may want to spend some time reviewing www.uspto.gov on TM issues.

Re: Your first question- depends on nature of business and market area.

Re: Second question: you may be infringing, esp. if the video game has cross-promotional businesses.

E.G. If I wanted to set up "Pac-Man Bakery", it could conceivably trigger an infringement lawsuit if the TM was used in the food retail industry.

( Think of multi-industry TM's like Apple [Computer or Records?] or Dove [Soap or Ice Cream bars)

Call or email for further assistance.

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Answered on 10/06/09, 3:01 pm
Daniel Reiff Reiff Law Office

There could be issues with the names, but there isn't enough information here to give you a definitive response. You also probably have other issues you haven't thought of. For example, you said there are several partners/members. This always poses problems when the business is created with just bare bones formation documents. I strongly suggest you consult a business attorney about forming your entity so that the common problems can be addressed up front when it is cheaper and easier.

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Answered on 10/07/09, 10:25 am


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