The Name Game You can shield your trade name from being ripped off by a larger company--if it's distinctive enough.

Five years ago, a small Georgia toy company called PeaceablePlanet began marketing a stuffed camel named "Niles." Thenext year, Ty Inc., the maker of Beanie Babies, flooded the marketwith stuffed camels also named "Niles." Peaceable Planetsued to protect its trademark. Last April, the 7th Circuit U.S.Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Peaceable Planet and ordered Tyto withdraw its stuffed camel.

Normally, lawsuits over trademarks involve a big company tryingto fend off a copycat. But under a legal doctrine called"reverse confusion," a small company can fight back whena giant threatens to overpower it by adopting a confusingly similartrade name.

It's not easy, though, to win a reverse confusion case. NewYork City attorney Lisa Pearson, a partner in the trademark lawfirm FrossZelnick Lehrman & Zissu PC, says that courts examine eachcase by many standards before finding a trademark violation.