Can anybody help me with a Trade Mark infringement issue concerning my e-commerce website.

I registered my Company name as a Registered Trade Mark back in April 2004 and only today received the certificate from the Patent Office validating our entry.

As my business is an internet only based company a vast majorityof my marketing is done via search engines such as Google.

Presently I am using Adwords and in doing so have come across another business in the exact same industry selling identical products from the same supplier and using the same images as my company.

I don't have an issue with this and am a firm believer in healthy competition, what I do have concerns about is that part of their name is confusingly similar to my company, which they have achieved by using different spelling.

In other words, should somebody type into a search engine part of the name it would be possible for both our companies to be listed next to each other and could in theory look as though we are in some way connected.

My knowledge on this field is very limited but I am sure this sort of behaviour is breaking the law, not so much in the Intellectual Property arena, more over in a "Passing-off" view point.

I have checked on the Companies House website to confirm the legal entity of this other busniess and couldn't find a listing for them and drew the same conclusion when I checked with The Patent Office.

I have worked with my solicitor frequently during the initial set up stage of my business whilst validating Terms & Conditions and when we became a Limited Company by registering with Companies House.

I would be interested to hear from anybody who has had similar experiences before I contact my solicitor, which will invariably end up costing me money.

I am not a lawyer....but.....

This sort of legal case is likely to be expensive and difficult to pursue. Is the other customer UK based? If not, where do they operate from? the fact that they're not registered at Companies House means they're not a UK Limited Company, but obviously could be operating as a Sole Trader or Partnership.

If they're selling from the same supplier with the same images, are the images in any way your copyright? Did you have any sort of exclusive license agreement with the company originating your products?

A starting point might be for you to see if the other guys will put a 'not associated with' message on their site or, if you want to get heavy, see if they're willing to change their trading name. What domain are they using? Is that a similarly named one?

A client of name changed her corporate image when she was approached like this - it cost her time and money but the other company was coming on heavy with her. Both she and the other company were Limited, but she didn't have the time, inclination or money to fight the case.

I'd really look towards dealing with this problem from a business point of view rather tahn legal point of view, unless you've got deep pockets.

Joe

i have sent you a PM.

can you find out if they've only started using this 'similar' name since after the inception of your company?

And apart from this similarity is there any other attempt by them at 'passing off', ie pretending to be or to be associated with your company?

Do you mind telling us what the two company names are?