# Could this work? (Company naming question) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-this-work-company-naming-question/848677 "2020-02-28T20:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-this-work-company-naming-question/848677/21 "2020-02-29T21:13:43Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Last I heard, Allen Klein liquidated it circa 1975. Checking [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Records): Nope. Klein ran Apple for a very short while, his contract ended in 1973. He closed some smaller parts of Apple but nothing major. Neil Aspinall ran it until 2007 which is a remarkably long run in that business, esp. since the owners are the Beatles and their heirs. (He also ran the parent company Apple Corps before Klein left.) Note that all Beatles re-issues and such are done on the Apple label, with collaboration of “real” labels Parlophone and Capitol. Most famously, the album _1_ which was an incredible success. It was the best selling album of the 2000s for quite a while. Apple (computers) and Apple (music) get into it from time to time since a good sized chunk of the former’s business involves music. So they hammer out a new deal. That’s why I mentioned it. If Jobs &Co had never added sound output to Apple computers nor got into iPods/iTunes/etc., they would have never had a problem with Apple Records. (That’s a ridiculously hypothetical “if” there.) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-this-work-company-naming-question/848677/22 "2020-03-01T02:56:49Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > This paragraph sure makes it look like the second guy was busted just for using his own name—“without permission.” Apparently the meaning of “commercial purposes” was extended to mean playing pro ball under his personal name. Not even in the same sport! I can’t shake the sense of bizarreness around this. I feel your consternation, so I’m not trying to be disagreeable, but the counter perspective is that Kareem Abdul-jabbar makes millions of dollars through licensing and endorsements, so he has a vested financial interest in protecting that “brand”. Suddenly, there’s an athlete at UCLA (his own alma mater) who wears number 33 (his own number) who suddenly decides to change his name to Karim Abdul-jabbar. Meaning, there are going to be UCLA #33 jerseys with abdul-jabbar on the back that have nothing to do with Kareem. While it is perfectly understandable had Kareem shrugged his shoulders about it, I’m guessing those who managed the income stream from his business endeavors may have raised some concern, for the same reason that these other “brand names” get protected by their owners. So he sued to stop the sale of jerseys with the new guy’s name on them (which, again, is different from saying he can’t use the name at all). The settlement was apparently to ensure that Karim, the up and comer, used “Abdul” on his jerseys to avoid any confusion. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-this-work-company-naming-question/848677/23 "2020-03-01T16:02:41Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Indeed, the McDonald brothers sold their trademark rights to Ray Croc and when they started a new burger joint, they had to pick a different name. It was worse than that. According to _Cranking it Out: The Unauthorized Biography of Ray Kroc_, the brothers did sell the company and the rights to their name to RK but kept the original location. McD Inc. raised a stink about it so they had to change the name to Mac’s Place or something similar, then McDonalds opened a store across the street and they went out of business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-this-work-company-naming-question/848677.md?page=1)