

Ask HN: How do you ask a similarly-named company to change theirs? - kareemm

Hi HN,<p>I run a company that makes a product called e.g FooBar.  We launched two years ago.<p>A company called BarFoo launched several months ago, selling services to the same market.<p>We're not competitors, but this has understandably caused some confusion - we got an email from one of our customers wondering about BarFoo, saying that "it seems like [BarFoo] is diluting or infringing on your outstanding Product".<p>I'd like to ask these guys to consider changing their name since we're older, more established, and as I understand it have dibs on the trademark (IANAL).<p>Anybody encounter asking another company to essentially change their name?  How did you handle it?
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olefoo
First get a lawyer. If and only if your lawyer tells you to send the other
party a letter; send them a letter. You will most likely need to apply for the
Trademark protection you are wanting to enforce before you do so.

This is one of the areas where winging it is not an option. If you communicate
with them in any way you run the risk of creating evidence that your claim to
the trademark is not as strong as it should be and you could unknowingly give
the other party what they would need to force YOU to change your company's
name.

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DaveChild
> dibs on the trademark

My understanding (IANAL) is that while you could register the trademark, you
can't use it to stop people who were already using it before then.

