Someone seems to have stolen my business name and trademark design?

carrot-cake_2

I set up a facebook and twitter page in 2011 selling personalised bags etc. I called it Betsy Button and checked that there were no other obvious businesses online with the same name and style. At the time there wasn't. And on the back of the bags I sewn a button where the 'O' should be and this was the temporary picture on my twitter account until I had my website and trademark up and running. I have been in the process of getting the website set up and name and style copyrighted/trademarks etc but...

I have since found this website set up in 2012 which looks to have copied off me? It is based in Manchester, I am in Merseyside.

http://www.betsy-button.co.uk/

Without the protection of copyright etc and solely based on the fact that I have proof mine was set up first is there nothing I can do?

I know I have probably been a bit daft in taking a bit too much time getting things properly sorted out but this has wound me up a little bit and its caused me the problem of having to change the whole thing even though I have already paid a fair bit out already getting everything finalised I feel so stupid!

Own_My_Own

I just put Betsy Button in the face book search bar and a whole page came up. So it would seem there are a few people / companies using the name on there.

carrot-cake_2

Own_My_Own wrote: »

I just put Betsy Button in the face book search bar and a whole page came up. So it would seem there are a few people / companies using the name on there.

I know I left it way too long I think. At the time I googled the name and checked on facebook and there was nothing.

TonyMMM

Did you ever register your trademark ?

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm.htm

mattyprice4004

I'll write to Argos and tell them I set the name up first, and then use it for my business

With no proof or no official registration, you're stuffed. Get things trademarked etc before paying for personalised items.

mo786uk

There is nothing stopping 2 businesses using the same name - but only 1 company can register the name with companies house - and companies house wont let names be registered if they can cause confusion. But a ltd company can use a trading name

So the real argos might be ARGOS LTD and they trade as ARGOS.

I might set up a company called ABC LTD but I might trade as ARGOS.

The question is then, am I casuing confusion - if not then it is unliekly to breach any consumer protection law. If IKEA sell furniture and I start a business calld IKEA car sales am I liekly to mislead anyone? possibly not (though Ikea might sue me for taking advantage of their good will). On the other hand if I set up IKEA selling furniture in a large warehouse then there may be a case to argue consuemrs are being misled - this might be mroe relevant for smaller busiensses where consuemrs may be more likely to be misled.

As for itnelelctual proeprty laws:

If you register a TradeMark then you have exclusive use to it and can sue anyone using it.

Copyright is not registered but you ahve exclusive rights to nay copyright - e.g artkwork and can sue anyoen using it.

The bottom lien is that it is very possible for someone to set up a very similar business to you elsewhere in the country as lognas they are not exactly copying your trademark or copyright.

pulliptears

To be fair using the image of a button to replace the letter 'O' isn't anything original. There is another here:



It's a pretty standard response from any designer.

michaelvintner

There is an Argos in Amsterdam

http://www.nighttours.com/amsterdam/gayguide/argos.html

although you will have problems trying to buy a new toaster there.

I apologise for my lack of a useful comment to this thread.

Sparhawke

The problem as I see it is when you become incorporated that TM becomes an issue, if you are a large soda company and have someone set up a soda company called schteppes then you have a problem. They are clearly infringing because you are in the same type of business and the name is too similar. Schweppes is not a generic name.

Now, the button company is a generic name even though you may have registered it, that is because 'button' and 'company' are both generic words and having a button in the logo is too derivative of other designs.

This is further compounded when you have completely separate cities.

I doubt you would've gained satisfaction even if you had got your application in since of these issues, as such I think it is just best to take the name and website and business you do have and try to distinguish yourself in the best way you can and document every change you make to your design, site, business and logo changes as you get more popular, by sending screen change documents to yourself on a regular basis by various means. If in time it becomes obvious they are copying your changes then you may have grounds for a legal challenge as then they are trying to pass themselves off you and are effectively stealing your marketing efforts.

(Make sure you take images of their site and such on a regular basis to corroborate your claims, it is much harder to do this if you have no actual timeline to show what they are doing that goes hand in hand with your own)

How exactly did they get your Betsy Button Facebook address?

InsideInsurance

Looking at the "offending" website, they have owned the domain since 2011 too

As others have already said, intellectual property law is actually fairly complex, which you will already know if you truly have actually applied for the trademark etc as you claim.

At the end of the day however you could write to their web hosting company 1&1 with a cease and desist instruction to get them to take down the site. Often budget webhosts will comply with the minimum of checking because its simply not worth their while fighting it over the £30 a year fee they are charging

You do however need to protect this and any future ideas much more rapidly in terms of buying the domain names, registering the company etc

SuperHan

Also, there are no companies registered with Companies House under the name Betsy Button, so we are just talking about the trading names of Sole Traders, which makes it even less likely that there's anything you can do, unless you have the trademark registered.