Legality of using a song name as a store name....

Is it legal?

[HughMungus]

Anybody know if it's legal to use a song name that's fairly unique as a store name or website name? Want to know about legality, not common practice. Thanks!

[Rugles]

Seems to work for Ruby Tuesdays.

[HughMungus]

Thanks for the reply, but, I wanted to find out about the legality, not the common practice. I want to keep everything 100% legal (in other words, I don't want to start a website for someone then have the owner of the song tell us we have to change the name of the site 2 years later). I thought someone here who has a website might have had an experience with such a situation.

[lorax]

The song title itself may be a word mark. Have you researched at the USPTO [uspto.gov] (United States Patent and Trademark Office)?

[HughMungus]

Thanks for the link but I don't see a "wordmark" search. Would that be covered by "trademark" search?

[lorax]

The easiest form to use is this one which does include wordmarks. [tess2.uspto.gov...]

[HughMungus]

Thanks Lorax. It's interesting. I thought song names would be copyrighted but I typed in a bunch of song names that are distinctive and unmistakable as song names and it appears that maney companies are using them as company, store and brand names.

[freeflight2]

call a trademark lawyer and actually try to register the songname as a trademark - they might tell you right away if it's even possible to register it without charging you.