Initial ruling on the use of initials

Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” A state district court judge, however, has had to ponder, “What’s in an initial?”

Harris County Judge Robert Schaffer was recently asked to decide a dispute between two Houston personal injury law firms, each with lead partners with long, perhaps difficult to pronounce names that begin with P and M.

The branding scuffle started in May when PM Law firm, led by John Papapavlou and Porya Mostaghimi, sent a cease and desist letter to Paranjpe &

Mahadass, which adopted the shortcut P & M, and used just plain “PM” in some of its marketing materials. PM claimed P & M was violating its common law trademark on the initials, and confusing clients, some of whom called PM looking for P & M.

P & M responded by suing PM to protect its rights to use the initials.

Law firms once had long names, listing every big partner including the dead ones. But as firms hired marketing consultants, they’ve streamlined. Many firms have gone short, such as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, which now goes by Skadden.

Others have shrunk to initials, such as AZA, which is short for Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing.

But as firms try to make it easier for clients to remember their names, it’s inevitable some letters of the alphabet will eventually overlap.

Typically, these kind of disputes get worked out, said PM lawyer David Mestemaker. But before that could happen, P & M sued.

“It was a bit of an overreaction,” said Mestemaker.

Ashish Mahendru, who represented P & M, said he had no choice but to sue to protect his client’s established identity.

Schaffer ultimately ruled for P & M, telling PM that it didn’t have exclusive rights or a common law trademark to either P or M.

Which was big relief to afternoons.