What’s in a Company Name?
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009Protecting your company’s name, logo and/or mark (collectively, the “Company Marks”) from unauthorized use should always be a priority when drafting an agreement. Including a use of name/advertising provision in the agreement that limits the use of the Company Marks in any advertising or promotional literature without your company’s prior written permission can protect unauthorized use. Such a provision puts the opposing party on notice that the use of the Company Marks without permission is a breach of your legal right and can result in a potential claim by your company. It is important to remember that the Company Marks can be a valuable marketing tool that an opposing party to a contract could potentially use to gain additional customers for its product or service (resulting in monetary gain for the opposing party, not your company). Consequently, a use of name/publication provision should, at minimum, require the opposing party to seek written permission from the owning party (the company) prior to each instance of use of the Company Mark.