Hi,



Release of Company Names Tribunal Decisions

10 January 2010

By Ben Evans

The Intellectual Property Office have published the first 75 decisions of the new Company Names Tribunal.

The Company Names Tribunal commenced operation last year and adjudicates of the opportunist registration of companies with identical or similar names associated with other companies (and more often than not protected as trade marks). One important point to note here is that the registration of the offending company name must actually be opportunistic, so just because the names are similar is not enough. In basis this is similar to the concept of cyber squatting i.e. it is not registering a similar domain name that is the problem in such a case it is the reasoning behind its registration that is the problem.

71 of the 75 decisions have gone in the favour of the complainant, 2 have been withdrawn and 2 have been struck out.

Ben Evans is an trainee solicitor specialising in intellectual property and information technology law. SOURCE
___

Best,
Dan