Name of Business - Conflict? Georgia

[RyanWard]

What is the name of your state? Georgia

I have registered a domain name and want to host a website. The problem is that the secretary of state has a business named "city real estate, inc". My domain name that I purchased is cityrealestateinc.com. If I register a business, can I register it as city real estate inc, LLC and then use my domain name for my website? Or, could the person who owns city real estate, inc insist that I am infringing on his business and force me to stop?

Thanks in advance. I am considering calling a local corporations attorney to make sure, but, figured I would check here first.

Ryan

 

[RyanWard]

I guess I'll need to contact a corporations lawyer???

 

[TomD1974]

You should contact a lawyer familiar with intellectual property rights.

The other company likely cannot claim that they own "rights" to terms that are just everyday words like "city" or "real estate" or a common combination thereof. So if you took the domain name now there is very little chance that they could ever wrench it from you. It is surprising that they don't have it themselves.

That said, why would you not just come up with an original name? That would be preferable, unless you can actually find no evidence of this other company actually doing business.

 

[FlyingRon]

Using INC (or COMPANY for that matter) when you are not a corporation of some sort is fraught with perils. What do you think inc means?