Starting New Local
 

Hey Yall!

This might be a stupid question but me and some girls are starting to work on starting a local on our campus but heres the thing...We chose a name that we felt really resembles what we want to stand for but then realized that it is an existing honorary society but they are not registered with the Professional Fraternity Association and have no offical website. We do not intend to be a honor society by anymeans but can we still use this name?

I hope this question makes sense lol...
Thanks!

It is not totally unheard of to have one name be used for different organizations. A quick gander at http://www.greekpages.com will show you that :) . I hear that even my own sorority's name is being somewhere else (although they are a very small group....and have not registered there name or anything like that).

Legally speaking, a [corporate] name can be trademarked. There are different levels of trademarking; state, federal and international. I could not tell you the fees off the top of head....but it's usually not cheap. At least $200. If you incorporate the sorority, you will need to make sure the name is unique - but only among other incorporated entities in that state. It is unlikely that this other group is incorporated in your state as well. If it is, you could incorporate in another state (check laws though...sometimes board members of the corporation must be state residents).

There is a group of KDPhi girls on our campus who are not actually affiliated with the national organization of KDPhi...

They call themselves alpha Kappa Delta Phi. Maybe you should consider something like that? Everyone still knows them as KDPhi, even though technically they are aKDPhi...

aKDPhi added the a after they found out about KDPhi.

aKDPhi is a national Asian-interest sorority.

I think it's only a real problem if the pre-existing sorority is incorporated, making it technically illegal to use their name. But I'll check up on that.

That's only if you are incorporating in the same state or if they have a registered trademark on their name.

Oh ok! That makes it much easier then. Thanks for the info =]

original
 

You org is yours be original

First of all, who are you.

Secondly, dixiegirl09, definitely do a search of other threads here on GC about this topic, it sounds like you have an idea of what's going on, but it never hurts to read other's experiences. Good luck, I am in a local (I'm an alumnae) and we're here if you need anything :)

hijack\
For gcer's, I just finished reading (all the way through) wishinhopin's thread. wow.
/end hijack

^^ which thread? I can has a link please?

Wishinhopin's rush at ucsc thread

:)

Organizations can also be incorporated in one state & register as a "dba" (doing business as) in other states. You can check the secretary of state websites for most states to do research on organizations incorporated or registered as a dba.

This site is also helpful - http://www3.telus.net/tyee/greek/

Good luck!

Really long and interesting read. So where is NBO now? Are they still pursuing Theta Nu Xi?

I tried to track them down with no luck, If you read one of Corina's last posts, she says that affiliating with Theta Nu Xi wasn't going to happen, but she never really gave a reason. There was a thread floating around last week that mentioned the thread, I never read it all the way through until a few days ago, perhaps older GCer's might know where she is/ they are. The UCSC website lists a few greek org's (Alpha Psi being one of them) but nothing about NBO or anything like that.
bummer! :o