A New York law provides that new businesses cannot register names that employ words like “library”, “school” or “academy” without the prior approval of the state education department. The department declined to approve the application of a startup East Village confiserie that calls itself The Chocolate Library, so the owner has incorporated as Chocolate 101 while hoping for a change of heart on the registration issue. He called the dispute “ridiculous”: “No one is coming in here confusing us as a library.” [NYT “Diner’s Journal”]
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Given the fertile imagination (and ocassionally dubious ethics) of New York business owners, this may well be a rule worth suffering.
So how’d these guys get approved: http://www.brandylibrary.com/ ?
Can I check out one of your delicious chocolates and return it in a few days?
Then it’s not a library, is it pal?
BC>As the original NYT link notes, The Brandy Library and a couple of similarly named businesses registered before the law went into effect in 2006.
I wonder if there isn’t an as-applied 1st Amendment violation here since in such cases the law does not have the effect of regulating education.