Can you copyright a business name?

[Trevor]

I am 15 years old. I own a domain and pay for the hosting of that domain. A business called "HardwarePub" was made and hosted on my doman. The founder of the webpage was recently kicked from leadership, and I took over. He wanted everything that he made for the website (which was generally only reviews/text documents) so we gave them to him, and they are no longer hosted on our site. Now, he wants us to not use the name "HardwarePub", and says that it is his creation, and that he will sue us if we use it any longer (he is only 16). We changed our name to "The Hardware Pub", to make it more generic, as to not upset him.. but he doesn't want us to use any name with hardware and pub combined. I am under the impression that names and ideas are NOT protected under copyright agreements, so I am partially confused.

My question is, can he sue me and what should I do?

 

[ALawyer]

Go to the FreeAdvice.com section on Trademarks.

Typically the trademark is owned by the business, and if you now own the business you own the trademark.

And while adding "The" will not change things, you may wish to tell the 16 year old Clarence Darrow that you are prepared to litigate to confirm your rights to the name and file a declaratory judgment action against him.

But if you think the name has real value, see a lawyer who knows trademarks as the next to last thing you want to do is build up a brand name that someone else has rights to....


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