Tradenames

[Louie]

Hi,

is there a good online reference guide about trademark law and domain names?

The government just announced the formation of a new company, uk financial investments limited, and it looks like it's already registered the .com, .co.uk and .net versions, but is there anything in law to stop people registering the rest?

 

[rob]

what would be the point?

 

[accelerator]

This might help a bit:

OUT-LAW.COM: IT and e-commerce legal advice and support

The basic premise is quite simple. If someone has taken out a trademark, you can check at:

UK Intellectual Property Office

If they have one, it prevents you using a domain commercially in the classes they have a trademark in, i.e. a trademark will only cover certain classes.

Rgds

 

[accelerator]

The government just announced the formation of a new company, uk financial investments limited, and it looks like it's already registered the .com, .co.uk and .net versions, but is there anything in law to stop people registering the rest?

Forming a limited company does not confer any intellectual property rights, only registering a UK trademark does that.

Rgds

 

[doodlebug]

You don't have to register a trademark in order to claim it, as soon as you start using your tradremark you have staked your claim to it, registering your trademark simply shows the public and other commercial interest that you have registered your claim and this keeps court proceedings and cost to a minimal, but you don't have to register your trademark it just makes sense, only problem is you only get 1 catergory as standard, each other catergory cost extra, so some small companies don't bother which can result in even more cost should somebody challenge the trademark ?
Anyway, maybe stay away from trademark names, especially government types ( says me ) hmm !!!

 

[springer]

Also, in addition to searching for a UK trademark at the IPO you may also want to search for the community (European) trademark at: http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/QPLUS/databases/searchCTM.en.do

Yes, you do have to be careful of unregistered trademarks which may be subject to a passing-off tort action - this is often used in domain name disputes.