Like millions of Americans, I have always dreamed of owning my own business. Specifically, I wanted a business that offered fair and balanced information to the new and used car consumer.
As an common auto consumer myself, I had always felt there was a tremendous void of resources for people like me to make an informed decision when making such an important investment.
I wanted to empower people through education, training, and research to become knowledgeable consumers, reasoned decision makers and responsible automobile purchasers. I had two primary goals for my company:
1. To assist and support automobile consumers in managing their automobile resources so as to meet their purchasing goals.
2. To offer valuable resources for consumer so that they may do their own research in evaluated their purchasing decisions.
After careful thought and consideration, I was ready for one of the hardest parts of starting any business, choosing a company name. Anyone who has ever spent weeks deliberating over a business name choice will understand that this seemingly simple activity can be one of the most challenging yet important aspects of starting a new business. After careful consideration, I came up with the name AzDriveTime.
In the summer of I started working on the AzDriveTime program now found at www.AzDriveTime.com. Since I have spent many hours on artwork, content and web-presence in developing this business. This is not to mention the personal resources I have invested.
As a father of 3, and a fulltime employee at an arizona publishing company, I often had to work on the project late into the night after my wife and kids had gone to bed and nearly every weekend since mid 2001.
On December 20 my companies name, AzDriveTime, was certified by the Arizona Secretary of States Office (S.O.S.) as a Trade Name in accordance to Section 44-1460, Arizona Revised Statutes by Betsey Bayless, Arizona Secretary of State.
After carefully reading information found on the S.O. S website, I had every confidence that the name I had worked so hard to develop would be protected from infringement.
According to the Secretary of State's website, Trade names, trademarks, and partnerships registered with the Secretary of State must not be "deceptively similar" to existing registrations including corporations, limited liability
Companies, or other designations previously registered with the state.
Additionally, the general rule governing trade name acceptability is found in A.R.S. 44-1460.01 (b). It states, "The Secretary of State shall not file an application for the registration of any trade name, title or designation if it might mislead the public, or is not readily distinguishable from
names, titles or designations previously registered under the provisions of this article..."
Furthermore, the general rules posted on the Secretary of States website are
as follows:
Adding a city, state or direction does not create a more descriptive name.
Adding names such as corporation, company, services, manufacturing, associates, store, enterprises, association, etc., to the end of a name does not create a more descriptive name.
On August 16, I received a letter from an attorney, Steven P. Johnson requesting the use of the name DriveTime in exchange for $100 on behalf of an undisclosed client. The letter stated that the clients business was different from mine but that they could not incorporate using DriveTime in its name because of the potential conflict with my name.
It was only later that I discovered that the client was Ugly Duckling Corporation, the nations largest used car company. Such a similar name and confussion would mean certain failure for the project I had worked so hard on. The reality is that Mr. Johnsons' client's target consumer is exactly the same as mine.
I quickly responded to Mr. Johnson's request by explaining that because of my extensive dedication to AzDriveTime, I would not be able to accept an offer of $100 to consent to his use of DriveTime. The only assurance I could have that Mr. Johnson's clients business would not be confused with mine would be for the complete renaming of my company. It was beginning to become apparent through further correspondance that Johnson's client had invested a considerable amount of money in his project. As a smaller business, I was willing to use my flexibility in altering my company name. If that would be the case, then it would only be practical and fair that considerations be made for my investment of time and resources in the name AzDriveTime.
On September 1, without my permission, Ugly Duckling began using the name Drive Time.
Only after carefully rearranging my already fragile household and business finances, I have carefully and thriftily researched my legal options. Two separate attorneys agree that my trade name filing with the Secretary of States office gives me distinct and definite claim to the name AzDriveTime as well as deceptively similar or indistinguishable names.
My legal advisors have informed me that the potential legal fees to uphold my rightful name could easily exceed $15,000. They also reported that this high fee almost always discourages small business owners like myself from pursuing protection from larger corporations.in fact, I was told that this allows larger businesses to almost always overcome situations like this.
Because of this obvious unfair trade practice as well as the grave error committed by the Secretary of State and Arizona Corporation Commission, I have respectively requested that an appeal to both departments on behalf of not only myself, but all small business owners throughout the great state of Arizona be levied. This request has fallen on deaf ears and nearly every state and federal agency I have contacted. It is my feeling as a small business owner that if relief or at least safeguard cannot be counted on from these above-mentioned agencies, then it must be assumed that our state does not value the existence of small business in Arizona.
To simply suggest someone contact an attorney to remedy such an unnecessary situation is simply ignoring a blatant deficiency in two very important state agencies.
At this point, I can't help but feel that the work and money I have put into this project are on the verge of loss. I certainly hope this isn't the typical treatment small businesses across the United can expect in an already frail economy. With large companies doing this, it is no wonder over 90% of small businesses fail in this country!
Rick
Phoenix, Arizona
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