As more and more IP owners have discovered, protecting your name does not stop at a trade mark. As highlighted by the recent Facebook name grab, it is important that brand owners protect their right by registering their names as usernames on Facebook and other social networking sites. The cost to the brand if it [...]

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Sony have just applied for “HOLY INVASION OF PRIVACY, BADMAN!” as a trade mark in the US. Bearing in mind the announcement today that the UK government is to gain access to users’ lists of friends and contacts on Facebook and Bebo, perhaps a tie up could be on the cards. Link to Times article [...]

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Google and LVMH are back in court this week over the use of trademarked terms in when used in adwords. Google’s current stance in the UK is that trademarked terms can be utilised as a search term to generate the display of competitors’ adverts, but cannot be used within the text of the advert itself. [...]

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We hear from the BBC of the opening of a former Woolworths store in Dorchester, England. The new name of the store? Wellworths! Surely there must be some TM infringement here? Will the new owners of the Woolworths brand, the Barclay bothers, have something to say about this?

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We have today received the UKIPO consultation document which sets out proposed changes to the system of applying for and registering trademarks in the UK. The main thrust of the consultation is that official fees will drop by varying amounts depending how the trademark is applied for. This seems to be in direct response to [...]

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