Father Sues Son For Using His Own Name -- This Is Why People Hate Lawyers

Is it really a trademark problem to open a firm using your own name?

This is… not the Sink family. (Image via Getty)

South Carolina attorney George Sink is suing his own son, George Sink Jr., for opening up his own firm and using his own name — the one that George Sink the Elder presumably gave him.

George Sink of George Sink, P.A. Injury Lawyers, used to employ the junior (as in only a couple years out of law school) George Sink Jr. (as in his name) until earlier this year. There’s no explanation for why Sink fired Sink, but when little Sink opened up his new firm, the George Sink II Law Firm, his father sued for trademark infringement, unfair competition, cybersquatting, unfair trade practice, and dilution. You could say Sink’s throwing the kitchen sink at Sink, but we won’t say that because that’s hokey.

George Sink’s complaints have already had a tangible impact. Google — the bureaucracy that really controls our lives — wiped out record of George Sink’s long-established practice thinking it was an interloper stepping on the newly established George Sink Jr. firm. The error has been fixed, but this is the sort of unintended harm that opening up a similarly named firm can cause.

Still, in a profession where entities are expected to be named after their founders, it’s not uncommon to have multiple firms sharing names. We survived Morvillo Abramowitz and Morvillo LLP. There are two whole Steptoe and Johnsons! Consumers manage to figure it out and the alternative of forcing attorneys to rename their firms “Super Awesome Esquires” because they happen to have a shared last name seems even worse for misleading the market.

But George Sink’s argument runs even deeper than sharing the Sink name:

George Sink Jr. might be the son’s legal name—but it’s weird for him to use it, his father alleges.

“To the extent ‘George T. Sink, Jr.’ is Ted Sink’s legal name, on information and belief, Ted Sink has throughout his life preferred the use of his middle name and gone by ‘Ted’ or ‘Teddy,’” the suit alleges. It includes pictures of social media were the son goes by “Ted.”

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On the one hand, this could read like a guy junking the name he uses in common parlance to horn in on his dad’s practice. But it could also be a guy using his formal name in a professional context. Many an attorney business card spells out a whole name like “Billington Blundercott III” right before he introduces himself as “Trey.” George Sink Jr. is the name on his law license after all. As a consumer, it’s beneficial to be able to verify the bona fides of “George Sink Jr.” with the state bar than to wonder who “Ted Sink” is.

It’s even more murky when you learn that Papa Sink is arguably the one who created the George Sink Jr. brand:

Furthermore, the elder Sink has referred to his son as “George” in old commercials. One tv commercial, uploaded to YouTube last year shows the father and son standing side by side.

“I’m attorney George Sink,” the elder says, and this is my son.

“Attorney George Sink,” the younger introduces himself.

The ad spells their names as “George Sink” and “George Sink Jr.”

Robbing the kid of using the name that you’d encouraged him to professionally trade under for the last couple years seems unfair. One assumes this whole lawsuit is just an effort to force Sink Jr. to the table to change his firm’s name to something more generic. Still, whatever led to the kid getting fired is probably going to militate against his eagerness to deal.

The lesson, of course, is that lawyers should never have children.

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Sink vs. Sink: South Carolina Lawyer Sues Son for Starting Law Firm With Their Shared Name [Daily Beast]


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.