Law Commons^™

Unfair Competition In Use Of Corporate Names, John P. Diamond

Cleveland State Law Review

It is well settled that the law will give equitable protection to the prior appropriator of a corporate name against a subsequent unauthorized use by a junior corporation. In most states statutory recognition is given to the property right which a corporation acquires in its own name, usually in the form of a prohibition against another corporation choosing a name the same as or deceptively similar to that of the prior incorporator. Although it has been suggested by one author that the courts should give broader effect to the statutes, nevertheless the great majority of the cases are decided under …