YouView name is too similar to registered YOUR VIEW, according to trade mark holders Total
TV service YouView, which is available free for TalkTalk customers, is being sued for allegedly breaking a trade mark with its name.
Telecoms firm Total has launched High Court proceedings against YouView TV for a claimed infringement against the registered patent on its name Your View.
It is the latest in the row between the firms which began with Total’s initial objection to the Trade Marks Registry (TMR) in May, when YouView tried to register its name in relation to broadcast receiving equipment. YouView’s application and subsequent appeal were both denied by the TMR.
Total MD Stuart Baikie said: “Despite the recent vindication of our position in the appeal proceedings we believe that YouView has continued to act without regard to our registered mark and business interests. We have had no choice but to issue infringement proceedings and we are confident of success.”
Representing Total, Willans LLP Solicitors partner Paul Gordon added: “The YOUR VIEW trade mark has been registered to Total since November 2009, a fact that YouView were fully aware of when attempting to register their mark.
“On Friday 9 November, Mr Justice Floyd dismissed YouView’s appeal and took time to point out that not only was the hearing officer in the Trade Marks Registry right in her initial findings when she decided against registration of the ‘youview’ mark with certain goods and services, but that he agreed that there was similarity of the marks and similarity of the goods and services.”
