Not Doing My Homework :-(

PhilGreg · Jul 23, 2019

Being the impulsive type, I tend to make the odd mistake now again when investing in domains and I've registered many a duff name without first putting it through a spell checker! But today I think I've made a much bigger mistake and won a domain at auction that I've now discovered is trademarked in loads of categories, which therefore dramatically reduces it's potential use and value, probably makes it worthless, dunno I'm in shock at mo. Normally, I would not mind so much but this one is going to cost me £409!

I've had a few trademark issues before but nothing similar to this and I was wondering if anybody had any positive advice

Or am I screwed ??? The domain is TheCloud(dot)uk

Murray · Jul 23, 2019

I'm dumb I don't know anything about legal stuff, but as long as no one has "the cloud" for Class 35 electronic data storage you should be ok right? "the cloud" I thought was a generic term rather than a brand

TheCloud.net, TheCloud.com, TheCloud.co etc seem to have different registrants

DaveP · Jul 23, 2019

Murray said:
I'm dumb I don't know anything about legal stuff, but as long as no one has "the cloud" for Class 35 electronic data storage you should be ok right? "the cloud" I thought was a generic term rather than a brand

TheCloud.net, TheCloud.com, TheCloud.co etc seem to have different registrants

There are trademarks for this using class 35.

This means they're really your only prospective buyer, and they could possibly just take it from you if you put a for sale landing page. I mean what else could one really use thecloud.uk for?

Murray · Jul 23, 2019

DaveP said:
There are trademarks for this using class 35.

I must be bad at searching for trademarks because I can't see any

Can you link?

DaveP · Jul 23, 2019

Murray said:
I must be bad at searching for trademarks because I can't see any

Can you link?

Here https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmtext

Choose exact in the search type dropdown and enter 'the cloud' (no quotes) below it.

Murray · Jul 23, 2019

DaveP said:
Here https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmtext

Choose exact in the search type dropdown and enter 'the cloud' (no quotes) below it.

Yeah I've done that and couldn't find anything, you said "There are trademarks for this using class 35." so I thought you had found them rather then sending me to search again

DaveP · Jul 23, 2019

Murray said:
Yeah I've done that and couldn't find anything, you said "There are trademarks for this using class 35." so I thought you had found them rather then sending me to search again

Ok here is one https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00002581154

Murray · Jul 23, 2019

DaveP said:
Ok here is one https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00002581154

That's an image

PhilGreg · Jul 23, 2019

Murray said:
I'm dumb I don't know anything about legal stuff, but as long as no one has "the cloud" for Class 35 electronic data storage you should be ok right? "the cloud" I thought was a generic term rather than a brand

TheCloud.net, TheCloud.com, TheCloud.co etc seem to have different registrants

I'm not 100% on this and I think it maybe a bit of a grey area that needs careful navigation.

DaveP said:
There are trademarks for this using class 35.

This means they're really your only prospective buyer, and they could possibly just take it from you if you put a for sale landing page. I mean what else could one really use thecloud.uk for?

My intention was to brand it as a hosting provider for SEO Friendly Managed Wordpress Sites for companies who's target audience/niche is predominantly the UK market. This is an area I'm interested in and compliments what I plan to do in terms of adding value to my domains by designing and selling Ready-2-Go Starter Brands ( with domain ) and I was toying with the idea of offering managed wp hosting with each brand package. Bit more to it but that's what my thoughts were. Think I allowed myself to get distracted. There probably is a path to a conflict free use somewhere. I'll have look into in more detail. Thanks for your feedback.

DaveP · Jul 23, 2019

Murray said:
That's an image

??

Murray · Jul 23, 2019

@DaveP it's a trademark of the image/logo, not the words "the cloud"

dee · Jul 23, 2019

Wouldnt those trademarks be for the specific logo? I would have though the term 'the cloud' is far too generic. Its like saying electricity or gas isnt it ?

PhilGreg · Jul 23, 2019

The trademarks that worry me are EU003087897 ( EU003087897 ) and
EU006251045 as the lists of products and services that it covers is huge and appears to cover almost everything. See : https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/4/EU003087897#tab-2

PhilGreg · Jul 23, 2019

Am I being thick ? Is this trademark just for the image of their Logo and not for the list of products and services ? Surely not. I'm pretty sure it covers "The Cloud" for all those products and services listed on the IPO Gov site. Yeppo, I'm screwed ;-)

DaveP · Jul 23, 2019

Well that was silly of me for not spotting that.

JMI · Jul 23, 2019

Your worrying about nothing. Give it 12 months some start-up or a redundant IT consultant wanting to set up on their own will buy it off you.

PhilGreg · Jul 23, 2019

JMI said:
Your worrying about nothing. Give it 12 months some start-up or a redundant IT consultant wanting to set up on their own will buy it off you.

Hope so ;-) My concern comes from some previous fallout from inadvertently registering a few names that overlapped with those from other companies/organisations. For example, one Christmas I had a looney-hulk-type guy from a cult, hammer the hell out of my front door and damanded I sign a contract a contract, accept £250 and hand over the offending domain! I've also had Amazon on my case in the early days when I wanted to create a series of adventure tourism sites that focused on places like the Nile and the Amazon river! I had done nothing wrong and they were being over zealous but I still got several crappy letters from their lawyers. These days I'd rather avoid the hassle. But yes I guess I'm over-worrying a bit. Just need to rethink it's use a bit. Thanks everyone for your feedback and advice.