ECONOMICS

Assignment #5 - Rally Round the Trade Name

Assignment #5 - Rally Round the Trade Name

Answer-1

A trade name, which can also be termed as a trading or a business name, is a name under which a business conducts trade with its target market or for commercial use. It's said to be a legal name that the company has right over. The advantage of trade name is that it helps to distinguish one brand from the other belonging to the same genre. A trade name can also be different from the legal name the brand has been registered as and it is basically used for the corporate purpose. Once the brand name is registered it becomes the heritage or the property of the business. Upon registration the proprietary rights can be gained which aids a company in using the trade name in the market where it is intending to flourish (Robert, 1990).

According to the law Gabby the pizza parlor owner regardless of the fact that Rally has been her surname since birth does not give her the right to use it any way she wishes. If she does that then that would result in infringement of the rights of Rally Cars. Infringement of law can induce legal implications on her. The concept of trade name protection can be allowed under two laws which is the common law along with trade name registration. The inducement of legal implications depends on the type of registration that the company has had. Common law states that the entity that uses the trade name first in a geographic region for the purpose of providing a particular product or service to the target market has the sole right to operate with the unique name as it becomes an intellectual property and no other business has the right over it (Hope, 2001).

Answer-2

Yes it does matter whether Rally is associated with pizza or a car showroom. From marketing perspective, the purpose of marketing is to create an image of a brand. A brand or a trade name needs to be unique to ensure that the brand is embedded into the minds of the consumer. It should be embedded to the extent that whenever a consumer thinks of the product the first brand name that pops in his mind should be the brand name. Regardless of the amount of money invested if a brand name is confusing to the target market then the purpose of marketing is defeated and the money obviously goes to waste. Millions have been invested by Rally cars not to confuse the consumers about its product or service it has been invested to give Rally an image of a Car showroom. On the other hand Gabby's pizza parlor is benefitting from Herman's investment of $300,000.

Answer-3

It is of vital importance that Herman started to use the name Rally 40 years before it was used by the pizza parlor owner Gabby because with respect to the law and under the clause of common law it clearly ...