Re: the word "collaboration"

On Sat, Mar 25, 2000, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> On 03/25/2000, Karen Lunsford <klunsfor[_at_]uiuc.edu> wrote:
> >
> > A basic, but honest question from someone who is not a lawyer (me!):
> >
> > Does the word "collaboration" carry a specific legal -- perhaps
> > contractual? -- meaning when it is used to name a business or academic
> > research venture? I've found many, many ventures that call themselves
> > The ____ Collaboration, just as other groups would call themselves
> > The ____ Corporation. I'm wondering whether "collaboration" names a
> > specific, legal arrangement, just as "corporation" or "incorporated"
> > appear to (or am I wrong there?). And I've been looking at online
> > "collaboration forms" that seem to be setting up particular
> > expectations for sharing intellectual property. I've looked in online
> > general (Oxford English Dictionary) and law (dictionary.law.com) and
> > business dictionaries, but I have not found a conclusive answer. Do
> > you know of better references for or discussions of the term
> > "collaboration"? If the term has not been nailed down yet, are there
> > discussions about what might legally be called a "collaboration"?
> > Is this an issue? (I live in the U.S., but would be interested in
> > its use worldwide.)
>
> I'll take a guess and then see what the lawyers say.
>
> My guess is that a certain amount of puffery is permissible in
> business names. Nothing prevents a sole proprietor from using
> self-inflating or misleading names like Jane Jones Associates,
> The Jane Jones Collaboration, The Jane Jones Committee for Social
> Justice, etc. In other words, I'd not even assume that a
> "collaboration" consisted of more than one person. It might, but
> it need not.

We have the Business Names Act 1985, which requires permission to be obtained from the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (and in some instances also from specified bodies, such as those that regulate relevant professions) before certain words that suggest a particular status may be sued. It applies not only to incorporation of a company (in which case the Registrar of Companies will enforce it) but also the adoption of a business name, in which case most people don't imagine that (to use a client of mine as an example) you can't just call yourself an Institute of something.

Peter Groves
<peter.groves[_at_]virgin.net> Received on Mon Mar 27 2000 - 13:59:08 GMT