Section 53-4-37 - Use of name "cooperative"; penalty.
53-4-37. Use of name "cooperative"; penalty.
A. Only the following entities are entitled to use the term "cooperative" or an abbreviation or derivation of that term as part of their business names or to represent themselves as conducting business on a cooperative basis:
(1) associations organized pursuant to the Cooperative Association Act [Chapter 53, Article 4 NMSA 1978];
(2) groups organized on a cooperative basis pursuant to any other law of this state; and
(3) foreign corporations authorized to do business in this state on a cooperative basis pursuant to the Cooperative Association Act or any other law of this state.
B. Any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of Subsection A of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars ($200), and the attorney general or any aggrieved individual or association or group organized on a cooperative basis may sue to enjoin an alleged violation of this section.
C. Should the courts or the attorney general or the public regulation commission decide that any person, firm or corporation, using the name "cooperative" prior to these provisions and not organized on a cooperative basis, is entitled to continue in such use, any such business shall always place immediately after its name, the words "does not comply with the cooperative laws of New Mexico" in the same kind of type and in letters not less than two-thirds as large as those used in the term "cooperative".