Trade marked word in company name

[eek]

In terms of classes, this was the meat of the email:

"You appear to be infringing on our trademark. We have registered the words "Evolution" and "Evolution Design" under classes which you appear to be competing in, namely class 42 which includes website design services amongst others.

Our registration certificate number is 2595036 and is available online.

We are requesting that you cease and desist abusing our trademark with immediate effect. Putting the word "Net" in front of Evolution does not alter the facts that this word is trademarked."

You are a web design company, they are a web design company and they have to protect their trademark.

My advice would be to find a lawyer who specialises in trademarks and see if they can provide a quick 10 minute consultation (it may well be free). Then based on what they tell you either challenge it (expect to spend some money on lawyers fees) or change your name...

I have the same problem but the trademark owner operates in a very different field (online gambling) and doesn't really use it anymore so we both happily get on with each other..

[northernladuk]

If they are this aggressive they probably have half a clue what they are doing so I'd have a quick word with a trademark lawyer to be sure. If they are playing this card they maybe prepared to follow it through.

Personally I'd spend a bit of money to look in to this just to stick it back to them after a tulipty mail like that but up to you and what the lawyer says I guess.

[eek]

If they are this aggressive they probably have half a clue what they are doing so I'd have a quick word with a trademark lawyer to be sure. If they are playing this card they maybe prepared to follow it through.

It's a trademark you have to actively protect it to keep it - the issue here is that NetEvolution 2 words merged into 1 to me is close enough to end up in court cases at vast expense....

Edit to say I did initially agree with NL, but on second thoughts find a new name and start rebranding asap - its just not going to be worth the pain....

[FrontEnder]

This is one of the reasons I just ended up using my name as a company name when I first started.

[BradMcA]

Would I be right in saying that I could rename the company and keep the domain name as it was registered before the trademark as a potential solution.

I don't mind renaming the company, I have another business idea I am working on but obviously the domain has an email associated to it.

[Maslins]

I'm baffled that anyone granted them a trademark for the word "Evolution"?! It's just a word, in common usage. "Evolution Design", fine, that's two fairly specific words that wouldn't often be said together otherwise.

If they have successfully got a trademark for just "Evolution", then yeah, seems like you're screwed...but that's ridiculous.

If you can be bothered and have the skills, might be worth checking the actual trademark granted. Eg was it literally for that word, or only where it's used in that font/style...so more of an image protection than purely the word.

More generally, I'm gonna see if I can trademark "the", should then be able to threaten millions of businesses.

[northernladuk]

Would I be right in saying that I could rename the company and keep the domain name as it was registered before the trademark as a potential solution.

I don't mind renaming the company, I have another business idea I am working on but obviously the domain has an email associated to it.

I doubt it. I'd imagine as soon as they prove the trademark they'd have no problems giving them the domain if they challenge it. That said if you don't use it as competition and just an email they might not care.

[northernladuk]

Edit to say I did initially agree with NL, but on second thoughts find a new name and start rebranding asap - its just not going to be worth the pain....

And that's probably the common sense solution at the end of the day.

[eek]

I'm baffled that anyone granted them a trademark for the word "Evolution"?! It's just a word, in common usage. "Evolution Design", fine, that's two fairly specific words that wouldn't often be said together otherwise.

If they have successfully got a trademark for just "Evolution", then yeah, seems like you're screwed...but that's ridiculous.

If you can be bothered and have the skills, might be worth checking the actual trademark granted. Eg was it literally for that word, or only where it's used in that font/style...so more of an image protection than purely the word.

More generally, I'm gonna see if I can trademark "the", should then be able to threaten millions of businesses.

It's a very broad trademark look at https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Result...cySearch=False

[diseasex]

I have nothing to hide mate

Hi Bradley