Just Peugeot Citroen Ltd

Flyboy152

pendulum wrote: »

Companies sue others if there's even a hint of trademark violation, have a look at the McDonalds trademark cases! McCoffee and McMunchies both stopped from using the name just because of the "Mc" in front!

By your logic I can register "Not McDonalds But A Better Burger Bar" and be okay... I wouldn't last 2 minutes

The incorporation laws of the USA are not the same as in the UK. That said, PSA are not McDonalds. In the case of McMunchies I believe (though this is hearsay) there was a successful appeal. The McDondalds case against McCoffee case was unsuccessful.

McDonalds tend be almost unique in their pursuit of the protection of their name.

The whole point of registering trademarks and protecting business names etc is to stop other people in a similar field from using them! Peugeot / Citroen are in the motor business so they're absolutely entitled to stop someone else using the "Citroen" or "Peugeot" name from selling car parts - they would be successful 100%!

I would have thought that when "Just Peugeot and Citroen Parts," started ordering stock from PSA, someone would have noticed. It must have registered with someone that the name on the order was "Just Peugeot and Citroen Parts."

There is never a one hundred per cent probability of winning any case, as the above McCoffee example shows.

Well, I've just been to their website, and it says in the FAQ that its your responsibility to search the IPO website yourself and you must ensure your name doesn't interfere with anothers trademark.

I can see nothing about them doing a search to make sure for you.

If I attempted to registered a limited company as Ford Motor Company, I think it would raise an eyebrow or two at Companies House.

When I registered as self employed, they didn't check if my trading name was going to infringe any trademarks.

Being self-employed is not the same as a limited company. Your local tax office have no interest in your trading name.

It's not even possible to know for sure before you register a company whether your going to be infringing a trademark or not, so responsibility must be on the one who is registering the company name.

It is very easy, just a quick on-line search of Companies House's webcheck service will help. But I would have thought that the staff at Companies House were pretty good at checking their own database.

Where's your evidence that Companies House are responsible for
advising you if your name will infringe copyright/trademark?

Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no "evidence," as such. Except my experience of registering limited companies. A few years ago I registered a company that had a similar sounding name to another. Companies house advised me that it sounded like another company. I changed the name to sound a litle more different. I did not have to take the advice (because that is all it was, advice), but I considered that it would be better for me, as I did not want the other company to do something, which might harm the reputation of my business.

How do you know they did not do this but the owner decided to register "Just Peugeot / Citroen Car Parts" anyway.

Because advice is advice, not mandatory.