My aunt just sold an asian restaurant, the new owner said that theyre going to change the name as soon as everything is complete, and as it turns out they kept our name except for one word, so it has the exact name meaning and everything. So I was wondering, my aunt has the rights to the name (she has ownership to the business name and stuff like that) so would this be consider illegal?For example, the restaurant name is "Good asian cusine" but the new owner change it to "Great asian cusine" (This is only an example, but they change only one word and kept everything the same) Whats bothering us is that we have good relationship with our regular customers, so were afraid that some might be mislead into thinking that it was still our business, and if something goes wrong, they might think its us. Answer1:This is not illegal and your aunt isnt liable. Answer2:You can try to take them to court over it. In my town Sonic burgers moved in and forced a burrito place called Sonic Burrito to change their name. Its now called Ionic Burrito. Dont know if your aunt would win though. Sonic is a franchise and your aunts restaurant probably isnt. Answer3:Its understandable that you dont want your familys name tarnished by the new owners of the restaurant, but its only three words, and there are probably hundreds of restaurants with both names in the country. So legally, theres nothing you can do about it. Answer4:No if something is to go wrong it would be on the present management and Im pretty sure if the customer came in and had common sense they could tell that its not your aunts restaurant any more. Answer5:When they bought the business they bought everything, including the name unless otherwise agreed in the contract. The new owner can keep the name or change it. For more info on this, you can look into contract law. Basically, when you sell a business, you sell everything about it. Again, this assumes that the contract did not specify otherwise. Your aunt is no longer responsible for anything the restaurant does. If shes planning on opening another restaurant, she might want to take a close look at the contract and see if there is a non-compete clause.oh yeah. one other thing. the name sounds too generic to qualify for trademark protection.