Legal issues in business require the expertise of a business attorney. Most of the time, you are dealing with a disgruntled customer suing you, or an issue with a product that you were unaware there was a problem. However, when you are first starting your business, and you are faced with a lawsuit over the name you have chosen for your business, that does not portend well for your future. Here is how to effectively argue for the rights to call your business by the name you have chosen for it. 

First, Hire a Business Attorney

This situation is going nowhere fast if you try to deal with it on your own. Hiring a business lawyer will help you get started on your case, and keep the litigants from haunting your doorstep. Your lawyer will look at all of the facts in the case, and then conduct some research into your business's chosen name to see if there is some way to help you avoid being sued. 

Next, Assess the Claims Made by the Person/Company Suing You

Why are they trying to sue you? Is the company name you chose that close in comparison to theirs? Sometimes it just looks like theirs in terms of font, print colors, or design, and that is something you can easily change. Sometimes people choose a business name because they like how it sounds, not realizing that it was something they had already heard of or seen in the past but was forgotten until they chose to make the business name theirs.

You and your lawyer have to delve into the details of the "why" in this case and see just where things have gone wrong, and whether or not a simple change to color, font, style, or retooling of the business name to look a little different is all that is really needed to avoid a lawsuit. If there is no real comparison or likeness between the name you chose and the company/individual suing you, your lawyer could technically counter-sue for harassment and loss of income during the time this case was going through court or settling outside of court. 

Argue for the Right to Keep the Name

Finally, you and your lawyer can argue for the right to keep the business's name. If the other side argues that the name is either exactly or too much like theirs, then look up when their company was established. If theirs was established first, and for more than a year before yours, agree to change the name of your business slightly so that the two cannot be confused. It is still the name you chose, but with a more creative spelling or a play on words in the title.