Quote:
Originally Posted by cbarling
There's lots that could be said about this topic. I've recently given a talk on it, using Actinic as a case study. It was arranged by a medium sized firm of lawyers and the UK Patent Office was there, so I'm reasonably certain of the facts.
There are various ways that you can protect your Intellectual Property including registering trademarks, designs and domain names.
"Actinic" is a registered trademark in the area in which Actinic operates. The fact that "Actinic" is used in other contexts is irrelevant, otherwise "Orange" couldn't be trademarked. Actually, the use of the colour orange is protected in the mobile phone space, would you believe.
Because we have our trade mark, we can approach anyone with a domain name containing "Actinic" that encroaches on our space and ask them to stop. Incidentally, we have already done that a few weeks ago with the domain name mentioned earlier in this thread.
It'a actually not true that we can't do anything about people using "Actinic" in their domain names. I'll make sure that is clarified for others in the company. We have a legal right to take action against anyone using our trademark in our area , although obviously not if someone is selling light bulbs, which isn't in our area.
Trade marking is, in my opinion, a critical defense. If they can afford it, I would recommend people register their trademark before they even open up their business. That way, you can make sure that you can actually trademark the name you've chosen (some names are too generic and aren't allowed) and you can also make sure no-one else has already got it. Once you've started up, it's very hard to change names.
Incidentally, as a result of having a trade mark, we are able to get Google and eBay to stop people advertising on our name.
Chris
From a thread in the AOB forum.
Also, I'd check your page titles if I were you fella.
Originally Posted by cbarling
There's lots that could be said about this topic. I've recently given a talk on it, using Actinic as a case study. It was arranged by a medium sized firm of lawyers and the UK Patent Office was there, so I'm reasonably certain of the facts.
There are various ways that you can protect your Intellectual Property including registering trademarks, designs and domain names.
"Actinic" is a registered trademark in the area in which Actinic operates. The fact that "Actinic" is used in other contexts is irrelevant, otherwise "Orange" couldn't be trademarked. Actually, the use of the colour orange is protected in the mobile phone space, would you believe.
Because we have our trade mark, we can approach anyone with a domain name containing "Actinic" that encroaches on our space and ask them to stop. Incidentally, we have already done that a few weeks ago with the domain name mentioned earlier in this thread.
It'a actually not true that we can't do anything about people using "Actinic" in their domain names. I'll make sure that is clarified for others in the company. We have a legal right to take action against anyone using our trademark in our area , although obviously not if someone is selling light bulbs, which isn't in our area.
Trade marking is, in my opinion, a critical defense. If they can afford it, I would recommend people register their trademark before they even open up their business. That way, you can make sure that you can actually trademark the name you've chosen (some names are too generic and aren't allowed) and you can also make sure no-one else has already got it. Once you've started up, it's very hard to change names.
Incidentally, as a result of having a trade mark, we are able to get Google and eBay to stop people advertising on our name.
Chris
From a thread in the AOB forum.
Also, I'd check your page titles if I were you fella.
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