SONY's VS SONY

M
Subject: SONY's VS SONY
M
From: lid (Melweaver)
M
Date: 09 Dec 2006 20:06:09 GMT
M
M A woman comes to this country from the Philippines and her first name
M is Sony. Her last name is Florendo. She goes about working hard to
M save a few pennies to open a small downtown restaurant in Baltimore.
M Through her own great recipies and sweat equity, she builds a
M business, and she calls it Sony's.
M
M In comes Sony Electronics and tells her she cannot do business using
M their name. They then proceed to take her into court, threaten her
M with all kinds of lawsuits, and finally the other day they won. And
M Sony Florendo's restaurant is no longer in Baltimore now. It is S.
M Florendo.
M
M Well, you know, I just do not think that is right. I do not think
M megacorporations with megabucks ought to crush a small entrepreneur
M who in no way jeopardizes their operation nor, by the very nature of
M the products they sell, poach on that reputation.
M
M This woman's business sold delightful Asian food. It did not sell
M TV's; it did not sell radios. And it in no way was poaching on the
M reputation of Sony electronic products.
M
M Well, Mrs. Florendo has no legal remedies anymore. The law just was
M not on her side. But I will tell you, this Senator is on her side. I
M have just written to Sony Corp., and I want to tell you what I said:
M . . .
In New York State you may incorporate under your own name and do
business under that name, even if it is the same as an other comapby;s
name. As long as the nature of the business is distinct from the other
one's and you do not try to associate your name with the other
company, you're in the clear.
Hence, it seems that in NYS Sony Florendo can run a business under
the name 'Sony' so long as she never alludes to the other Sony
electronics company.
Consider how many restaurants are named, oh, Sally's, all over
your own toen. If Sally is the name of the coompany owner, that's
fine, even if ther are many Sallys out there running independent
unrelated restaurants. Look in your local yellow pages to see what I
mean.
If I, John, wanted to open a business called Sally's, I could run
into problems if an other outfit claimed a name conflict.
You are also in the clear if you name your compnay with regular
words, like 'millennium' for a store that sells nostagic 20th century
clothes. No one can claim just on the name.
In fact, the well-known case is the Millenium hotel, across from
Ground Zero. It has one 'n', not two. That's not a regular word but a
trademark name. Other spinoff business, nearby the hotel, can not call
themselfs the Millenium shoestore or what ever.
On the other hand, in the early days of home computer clubs, many
catered to the IBM computer. hey used 'IBM' in the club name. that was
a no-no. One company that sold shareware discs at computer fairs was
called 'IBM disc', meaning that its discs were coded for the IBM
computer, not Commodore or Amiga. This slug of seven chars was also
its phone number! IBM 'discussed' the matter with it to change to 'I
am disc'. Dialing the phone number is the same 'coz 'a' and 'b' are
on the same '1' button.

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