[Spoygg]

You might be misinterpreting the law. Not sure for that case, but it's pretty standard (in this part of the world) that you can't use city or state name in commercial purposes (as a part of the name of the business or a product) without entity permission.

edit: also pages/domains that could be seen as representing the city can get notices about name usage. Domains, iirc, can be claimed for this reason by city.

It's kinda common sense, using city name, for some people, might be seen as representing the city, so any posts made by the page might damage the city public image etc.

edit 2: added note about part of the world

edit 3: moving this from reply

> I live in neighboring country, when you're starting a business you can't have city or state name in business name without permission. Also using domains that have city or state name included might get you in some trouble.

> Probably more usual in this part of the world.

Adding: since both our countries still have a lot of laws from communist era, there's all kind of crazy ideas pushed through laws.

[jimktrains2]

I'm not sure what you mean by pretty standard, but it's literally the opposite of pretty standard. How many little place have the city they're in in their name? I could probably find dozens for Pittsburgh without much effort.

Edit: I a actually had a company with my state's name at one point, registered in said state with no issue.

[Spoygg]

I live in neighboring country, when you're starting a business you can't have city or state name in business name without permission. Also using domains that have city or state name included might get you in some trouble.

Probably more usual in this part of the world.

[goialoq]

Did you just assume parent's location in the world, after the OP and the parent both they strongly implied that it wasn't anywhere near Pittsburgh?

[jimktrains2]

No, I was saying that it is not "pretty standard" as there are large portions of the world where it's not true.

[Symbiote]

A company name in Britain has some limitations, on words like Royal, England, Council, Chartered. But I don't see any restrictions with place names, except the country names.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/incorporation-and...

[esquivalience]

In UK and EU law, it's the opposite: Geographical names are expressly excluded from TM rights, unless there's significant reason that they should be protected. Even then, it's only protected to the extent that its use causes trade confusion.

[sowbug]

No. No intellectual property that works that way. Not patents, not copyright, not trademark, not trade secrets. The closest is ridiculous anti-dilution law for trademark, but trademarking a city/state name is generally a nonstarter.

[tibbon]

At least in that area of the world - could I not write a fiction (or non-fiction) book about the state/city without permission?

[Spoygg]

Sure you could :) There are many.