Naming a consulting company 3

[HamburgerHelper]

What are the stipulation on naming a company in the U.S. if there is a company in Singapore or India that has the same or very similar name? Does this cause issues? I don't think they do work in the U.S. if that means anything.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

As far as I know there is no issue. The previous company I worked for had the same name as another company in the US but a few states over.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[MotorCity]

Not sure, sounds like a question for an international copyright/trademark attorney. One thing that does come to mind is if the company located in the US has "Engineers" or "Engineering" in the name. From what others have discussed in previous threads, it appears that some US jurisdictions strictly regulate the use of those words (or similar) in a company's name.

 

[Compositepro]

No regulation can apply outside of its area of jurisdiction. Also, there are many companies with the "same" name, but they are not the same like "AAA", "AAA, Inc.", "AAA Engineering", "AAA (in Singapore)", "AAA (in the USA)". Companies can register their names in other countries to protect their brand, if that is important. Branding is important to a company like Nike, but you may find a "AAA Garage" in many cities. They do not care if someone uses the name elsewhere.

 

[SandCounter]

Having recently worked through this myself, it is my state's secretary of state that regulates the names. Two entities cannot have the same name in the same state. Punctuation and caps vs. lower case do not count. My state actually has a free name search on the secretary of state's website to tell me "unofficially" if the name is available. When I sent in my application, they would have let me know officially if my company name was taken. If I plan on licensing in multiple states, it may be a good idea to check to see if my prospective name is taken in those states as well. A company in Singapore with the same name would have to be already registered in my state to make the name unavailable. If I were planning to do business in Singapore, I would probably want to see if that name is already taken in Singapore. This is not legal advice, I am speaking from my own experience.

 

[lansford]

Our EE consulting firm in Pa. has the same name as a fitness supply company in the SE USA and we had no problems, although they do want our domain name. JIM