corporate name

[bergikoff]

new jersey ...

i am in the process of dissolving my partnership in new york. we were using a d/b/a ... i would like to start a new corporation in new jersey, using a variation of the name that was used as the legal entity in my old company (old company name: XYZ Enterprises - new company: XYZ Productions) ... can i do this? ... the name is slightly different. the state of incorporation is different. and the old name was used only for banking and legal purposes -- never for marketing or any revenue producing role.

thanks,
bergikoff

 

[onetabbykat]

There are a few things you may want to consider here...Does the XYZ in XYZ Enterprises contain part of your old partners name? If it does you may need permission from that partner to continue to use that name and get in in writing... If it doesn't, does the name have a copywrite on it? I am not too sure, but there has to be a way to get a copywrite taken off a name if the company no longer exists...Does the old company have it's name incorporated into a logo design, and is that copywrited? Sometimes the slightest variation of a design can make it your own...Thats just speaking from an artist point of view...What I learned about names and logo designs is this...words and pictures in general can not be copywrited...exmaple: the word leaves and a picture you designed of leaves...but say you have a company named leaves and incorporated that picture of leaves into the the company design as a logo then you can get that copywrited...kind of like Apple and their logo design...that particular apple is copywrited but any ordinary apple is not...So if the old company name is a logo design(which can contain a graphic or not) and is known to people just by looking at that name then I would say, no you can't use that name like it is, unless you change the design of the logo...