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N.Y. GBS Law § 209-C

This is the official text of N.Y. GBS Law § 209-C, part of New York’s GBS Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "GBS Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Registration of identical, similar or misleading names prohibited

Official statutory text

§ 209-c. Registration of identical, similar or misleading names\nprohibited. The secretary of state shall not record, register or file\nany name or designation identical with or similar to any other name or\ndesignation filed or registered as herein provided as would be\ncalculated to deceive or mislead the public, unless such prior\nregistration shall have been revoked as herein provided. The supreme\ncourt may, in an action brought for that purpose by any person or\ncorporation aggrieved thereby against any other person or corporation\nwho or which has already filed or registered any such name or\ndesignation, direct the revocation of any such registration where it\nshall be determined that the person who has already registered the same\nhas not the right to use such name or designation because of the prior\nuse thereof by another. No person other than the proprietor of such\nname or designation, which has been filed in the office of the secretary\nof state and in the office of the county clerk, as aforesaid, shall,\nwithout the written consent of such proprietor, in any manner\nwhatsoever, either directly or indirectly, use such name or designation,\nor any other name or designation for the name of an hotel or motel in\nthe state of New York which may be so similar as to deceive or mislead\nthe public. Any person or corporation may assign to any other person or\ncorporation all right, title and interest in, to and under the aforesaid\ncertificate of the secretary of state. Nonuse of the name or designation\ndescribed in any certificate of the secretary of state for the period of\none year shall operate as an abandonment of the right to use such name\nor designation thereafter.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.