Someones Copying my business

pocket8s

Hi All,

I am currently running an online business this has been going for 1.5 years as a sole trader.

My internet address is companyname.com another company has just started a new web site with the same company name except this time they have the website .co.uk

The idea in principal is exactly the same thing, same business, same idea!
and there opening words on there site state ...company name is .....and describes more or less what i do.

Iv worked hard for over a year and put a lot of money into this site and am just starting to reap small rewards...Is there anything i can do?

Somebody suggested i might have to buy a trademark? Or become a limited company just so i can register with companies house?

It seems alot of work and money to change my company to a limited company just so i can stop these guys starting up.
Any help wud be extremely appreciated

:eek:

Torby

hate to say it, but one of the most quoted bits of advice is buy the co.uk and com names if you can , you won't have this problem further down the line.

The only thing I can think of is if the sites look identical and read identical you may have some sort of case that the other company is "passing itself off" as someone else...if I opened a burger joint and my logo was a big yellow capital "Mac"...and my name was MacDonald...if you get my drift...but somehow I don't think you may have the clout of the burger kings....ooops there we go again...

think all you might have going for you is the fact you have built up custom over the last 18mths and it should stay with you....

hopefully someone else will come along soon and may have a better answer for you....in the meantime, if anyone else finds themselves in the same situation....spend an extra few quid and buy both domains.

The_doomed

with any new business you must think of the barriers to entry. with .com's etc buying the other domains is critical, they arent expensive. obviously this is too late for you, but you must now become more competitive and find out as much about them as possible. do a whois look up on the domain at https://www.nic.uk and see who owns it etc

pocket8s

thanks, when i orginally bought the .com i also bought .info . biz .net - however .co.uk was already bought by some random guy in norwich. I wrote to him asking if he wanted to sell it to which i never had a response. My web designer said he wud want several hundred to sell it so i never bothered again.

Well the only thing i mite go for dependant on what accountant says tmoz, is become a limited company then register the company and then depends on cost - look at trademark. After that i mite have more ground to stand on!
cheers

reehsetin

do you know if theyre actually trading or making it purposefully be like yours, if they arent actually trading with the name you could try claiming theyre cybersquatting (buying a name with no intent to use so someone else would have to buy it from you e.g. if i buy waynerooney.com)
otherwise trademark is probably your best bet

Bean_Counter

I don't know much about how effective and expensive the trademark route is. If you register with Companies House, this would stop the other bunch having a limited company name the same as yours, but have they done this already? They may be one step ahead. Go to

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/9214482ab7ffb713095d85e5fadc98c7/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

on the Companies House website and find out. It doesn't cost anything. If that link doesn't work you want to click of WebCheck.

Preventing them having the same or similar company name does not prevent them keeping the domain name, so might not be worth it.

kimbatty

I really don't think there's all that much you can do really, you should have secured the domain name at the time. Maybe it's the guy in Norwich who originally owned it anyway ? Is there a possibility of buying a .co.uk with a very slight variation to your current .com maybe with one extra letter in it but that would still be a representation of your company as .co.uk

Thing is if it is the guy in Norwich and he already owned it when you bought the other domains, he could also say that you copied his name as he had it before you. I think it may just be a case of a lesson learned on this one

EagerLearner

Maybe contarc the Patent/Trademark office (search google for the government site) and ask their advice? If you log your trademark now, they can help you do it and it's £300ish and could give you a basis to stop the other company's website...