IPR, Copyright/Trademark infringement?
Hi folks, my initial post so please be gentle!!
No beating about the bush, i'll just get right into it;
I currently represent one of two registered motor clubs for a specific marque. The club has been operating for over 10 years.
We have as far as i'm aware, no trademark registered for any aspect of the club name etc.
Recently it came to our attention that there were other websites which were playing on our name within the UK, obviously this could cause confusion between folks genuinely wanting to contact us or be involved with us as a club.
Not being too hot on copyright/trademark infringement etc i'm looking for some help and advice on how we as a club should proceed to protect ourselves.. .. ..
Any help or advice would be swiftly and greatly appreciated.
Regards
Chris.
You should seek to register
You should seek to register this mark as rapidly as possible.
You might be able to deal with this on line. See :-
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm.htm
Hi Chris, As Ian has said you
Hi Chris,
As Ian has said you should seek to register your name as a Trade Mark as soon as possible. The Intellectual Property Office deals with the registration of all Trade Marks in the United Kingdom. I believe they can also register your Trade Mark in other countries. You may be able to deal with the registration yourself and their website gives quite a lot of comprehensive information about how you can go about doing this. If you do not feel that you are able to this yourself you may need to use a Patent Attorney, you can find a Patent Attorney on the CIPA website.
If you are losing memberships and this loss is costing you money then you may consider bringing a "passing off" action against those websites which are using and trading on your name.
A "passing off" action is based on common law and essentially is used to stop one company passing itself off as another. However these types of cases can be very expensive to litigate and it would probably be far better to simply register your name as a Trade Mark and then after registration contact each website informing them that you own the Trade Mark to the name and that they must stop using it immediately.
I hope that this information helps.
I am a Legal Advisor employed by Sarginsons Law and specialise in Civil Litigation matters. I deal with disputes between individuals and businesses including Landlord and Tenant issues, debt recovery and property disputes.
Telephone 02476 553181
Guys thanks for your replies,
Guys thanks for your replies, apologies for not have said so earlier!!!
Unfortunately with various club changes this is the first instance we have again had to look into this matter!
Suggestion has been made that because our club name includes the manufacturers name we probably don't have any hope of successfully trademarking our club name, which i can't believe is correct?!
Can anyone perhaps point me in the right direction of a company dealing in this type of copyright/trademark issue?
Cheers
Chris