YouView faces legal challenge to the use of its brand

[Scubbie]

BBC News - YouView faces legal challenge to the use of its brand

UK internet TV provider YouView has become embroiled in a trademark dispute with a Cheltenham-based tech firm.

The High Court in London has upheld an earlier ruling that the TV platform's name was "confusingly similar" to YourView, a name filed by Total Ltd with the UK's Intellectual Property Office in June 2009.

YouView's name was filed with the IPO just over nine months later, prompting a legal challenge.

The row looks set to return to court...

[BritBrat]

Yourview and youview are not the same.

if your teacher asked yo to spell a word and you got one letter wrong would she praise you or correct you?

But that is just Myview © 2012, this copyrite thing is just getting stupid.

[dms05]

Yourview and youview are not the same.

if your teacher asked yo to spell a word and you got one letter wrong would she praise you or correct you?

But that is just Myview, this copywrite thing is just getting stupid.

It's called Passing Off where you use a name very close to an existing name to confuse potential buyers.

Remember Google couldn't originally use the name GMail in the UK and their service was called GoogleMail only in the UK. The reason was another company had the rights on GMail and wouldn't allow Google to use the name. Eventually Google bought the rights to the name and we now have their UK service called GMail. The current issue looks very similar to me, however the crux may be if the 3rd party actually has a service operating under the registered name.

[Isitme]

Interesting that the company who have the rights to Yourview, are called Total. I would have thought that name would have been challenged by Total the oil company who have held the name since 1955. Maybe it indicates how well known the company Total, the Yourview one, is.