Use of a name (company)

[Choc]

Hi, wondered if so someone is able to help me - not sure of legality here.

If I have a company registered what rights do I have over that name. For example:

Goat Property Limited; is someone else allowed to advertise as Goat Property but leave off the Limited or do I have some rights over the use of the name.

At what point would it make a difference. For example: Goat Property Holdings Limited, and someone else advertised as Goat Property. Does the actual name used make a difference? Does it make a difference how general the name is; for example Goat versus Right?

[Rosco]

Having the company name doesn't give you protection or rights to the name.

So if you had Goat Property Ltd, I could have ABC ltd which traded as Goat Property.

You would have to look at protecting your trading name or trade mark. Have a look at www.jaws.co.nz which is James and Wells Intellectual Property lawyers website.

Ross

[kyotolaw]

Just having the name as your company name doesn't give you any special rights.

If you are using the name actively and the other party is advertising in a misleading fashion, so that they are benefiting from the goodwill you've built up in the name, there is a legal doctrine called "passing off" (look it up on Wikipedia) that you can use to get them to stop using the name in a way that is taking away from your use of the name. But, its not used very often, you have to prove that you've been negatively affected, and like all things involving the legal profession, it costs a lot of money to prove and enforce (basically you're looking at court action = big bucks).

Conversely, if they are actively using the name and you aren't, and you try to start using it, they could use the same legal doctrine to try and stop you using it.

If you've just filed the company name and its a shelf company, or you use it as a legal entity without any public presence, you probably don't have any comeback against someone who is using the name actively and in a public fashion.

Hope this helps.

[Choc]

Thanks

Hi, thanks for the responses that has answered my question and been helpful.