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Rally Round the Trade Name

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Rally Round the Trade Name

Rally Round the Trade Name
Explain whether or not the fact that Gabby’s surname is Rally gives her the right to use it any way she wishes.

In this case Gabby Rally is operating a pizza business under the name Rally Pizza, which is taken from her surname Rally. However, within the same geographical location a car dealership already uses the name Rally Motors. The dealership has been using this name for over forty years and Rally Pizza has just recently opened. The name of the dealership is not associated with the surname of the current owner Herman Hays. Regardless that Gabby’s surname is Rally she is not legally able to use that name in commerce. Her use of the business name Rally Pizza is infringement on the intellectual property of Rally Motor. The Lanham Trademark Act (1949), the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1955, and common law provides the legal background protecting the trademarks of business. These acts “protect a company’s ownership rights to the name, logo, or symbol that identifies its products” (Halbert & Ingulli, 2010, p. 342). Section 1114 of the Lanham Trademark Act (1949) states:
Any person who shall, without the consent of the registrant use in commerce any reproduction […] of a registered mark in connection with the sale […] of any goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive; […] shall be liable in a civil action by the registrant for the remedies hereinafter provided.
“Trade names perform many of the same functions of trademarks or service marks by identifying a business, they are not identical, instead serving to identify and differentiate the business entity rather than to associate a good or service with the entity” (Intellect Law Group, 2009, para. 3). A state registration of a trademark is used to protect the commercial use

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