Small Business Resource: A Hard Lesson from a Real Housewife

Real Housewife Jennifer Gilbert (left, with fellow Housewife LuAnne de Lesseps) sued Hattie Grace Elliot over her business' name.

Image: Bravo.com

One small-business owner has learned the hard way that it's critical to research your company's name and trademark to make sure that it doesn't infringe on the rights of another business—real or perceived—to the name. Hattie Grace Elliot, the owner of a year-old New York-based high-end matchmaking service with a national presence, was sued by one of the real housewives of New York, who had staked a claim to a similar name.

Elliot had called her business Save the Date(ing). Housewife star Jennifer Gilbert had long since established an event-planning business called Save the Date, and had sued another company in the past to preserve her claim to the name.

Elliot gave in and changed her company's name to the Grace List. "The phrase 'save the date' is a generic term used by all types of people and businesses. I have complete faith that I would have won had the case gone to a jury, but only decided to settle due to the prohibitive costs involved in defending myself and my company in federal court," Elliot told the Daily News.

Responded Gilbert: "Save the Date has done what any other company in its position would do: enforced its rights and reputation that it has built over many years. Ms. Elliot never did a proper trademark search."

The lesson is clear. Better safe than sorry.