Caz

Two questions.

Can you use the term 'r us' on the end of a new business. Or is this part protected by toys r us etc. so say pizza r us.co.uk type of thing?

Secondly.

I passed a pizza shop yesterday and it's name in 20" high letters across the front was pizza.com

I know legally you can trade and have a company name as this. But would the owners care or indeed ever prosecute?

The owners of pizza.com will get more traffic and the dodgy pizza shop gets a shop name with in people's heads a reputable brand. Must be ok owning that name type of mindset??

Edwin

There's a hairdresser calling themselves "Hair.co.uk" in Cambridge who don't own the domain name, so I'm also curious what the official legal position is on this.

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Caz

Really, wow that's bad. At least we know these money laundering pizza shops are suspect. But you wouldn't think that of a hairdressers.

Pretty easy way to set up and seem professional and established. I bet supply companies are impressed. Until it folds and they don't get paid.

You could actually do this in a retail
Space and then when you have lots of traffic through your door change your name.

brum

i guess it to do with trade marks ....

if u had the trademark "hair" then u could stop them... or if you had the trade mark "hair.co.uk" but simply having the website / url does not mean anything....

u would have probably been able to get a tm on "hair.co.uk" the whole thing then u could stop them.

going tback to the original "r us" i belive toys r us only have it weith toys have seen lots of other r us buisnesses around.

Danimal

I think it is kind of a stupid idea to use a domain that doesn't belong to you as a company name: how can you have a web presence that way? I think it is kinda cool if you DO own the domain. Someday I want to open a mexican food business here in Holland, and think it would be funny to call it Burritos.nl (which is mine). I got the idea when trying to backorder Salade.com (which I didnt get). "Kom" means bowl in Dutch, so I thought it would be sort of a hip name for a Raw Food / Salad bar style restaurant because it sounds like Salad Bowl : )

BREWSTERS

With a domain name, we rent the rights to that name - as such anyone using that name should be stopped. The rinky-dink pizza shop is trading off pizza.com's rights. It's clearer cut than most TM issues...while we rent a domain, we have sole rights to it.

As per the 'r us' thing - I'm sure they have TM's in various classes on it, but obviously not all.

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accelerator

Yes, regarding 'r us' I would look at the scope of their UK trademark, and also look for any history of past disputes. My own view is there's a certain amount of originality in coming up with 'r us' in the ToysRus name, which would make their case stronger, particularly the way they have shortened 'are'.

Rgds

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Edwin

One of the 2 gentle brushes with legal issues I've had in 15 years of domaining was in the early days (late 90s) when I had a somethingrus.com name (I forget the "something") and ToysRUS's legal department fired letters at me. I gave it up and dropped the name as it wasn't worth fighting them. That's not to say they WILL win a dispute, but you can be pretty sure they'll at least try!

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fresh79

There are plenty of businesses using r-us out there, just search google for
"businesstype r us" here are just a few
**Removed links - but search for Inks, gardens, tiles & kitchens all with r-us at the end


i would say (and im no expert in this field) that as long as you are not trading toys or have anything to do with toys/hobbies/games then it should be OK.

The same for "businesstype 4 u" names, there are a million of them relating to everything you could think of, but keep away from mobile phones and you should be OK

As i said im no expert in this field but i find that normally a good dose of common sense works.

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namestrands

If I recall the "r us" is very much protected under trademark. As is "For Dummies" even "Daddy" is protected if being used within the domain/host industry.

TM owners do not want their name diluted so they tend to be aggressive when it comes to seeking out offenders. Normally a C&D letter is enough to scare, then its down to the TM owner if that is not enough and if its worth pursuing.

As for Pizza.com, well that is just silly, however its a case that could be argued if they are not providing a service on the web. If you consider Pizza.com as a single name forgetting about the fact that it could also relate to a web address.

Pizza.com Limited was in fact a Limited Company in the UK registered in 2001 and Dissolved just in August there.