I have a database compiled from various other sources rather than yell.com and am trying to promote it here: http://www.scrapingweb.com/databases/ukyellowpages-database.html Just now I get a letter from yell.com legal counsel that I have to take them down as Yellow Pages is their registered brand in UK. So I'm thinking maybe if I thoroughly change the name of the product, would that be ok? For instance, such as UK business directory database? I'm hosted in US, but their trademark is in UK. What would they do next if I do nothing around and just keep the product online?
Did it come in certified mail? Or was it just a letter? I own 300 sites I get envelopes and emails all the time. They're not serious until they spend the $30 to get it overnighted and certified.
It's an email - oh no, not quite an email as it's sent via the contact form of my site. It's someone who claimed to be their legal counsel. What do you mean by certified mail? Is it post mail or email? How do I know if it's certified? Thanks. Din't reply to them yet.
First, I have to say, I'm not a UK attorney and you should certainly check with a solicitor who deals with trademark issues to be sure. However, if you were in the United States, you'd be fine if you change the name away from the actual trademarked phrase. If they own the mark for "Yellow Pages", you can't use it. You can search here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ Hope that helps. Deena _________________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
I'm no lawyer either, but emails from your contact form are almost certainly nonsense. A real lawyer would send it direct to your registered domain contact email. And send hard copy to the reg address. If it WAS the real Yell.com, send them a reply asking to confirm it was from them. Then ask them to provide proof they have a trademark on that term in the US for the classification web based databases or whatever you are selling. Then... hire a lawyer.
Hi all. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-text/tmtsearch-default.aspx Yellow pages is in most countries. Very very well known. I'm sitting here thumbing through an Egyptian one as we speak. I sure as hell am not a lawyer as my lawyers keep telling me, after a battered day, but intelectual property. It depends where you are targeting the site. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/abroad/abroad-extend.htm It sounds like the UK. If you don't cease and desit they will just get Fuji to ban the domain name from the BT servers, which takes about 9 seconds. Or more likely complain to your US hosting company who normally help. The site is very misleading from a Uk perspective, sorry.
Spot on Valley. It is misleading and I would drop the yellow pages for sure. I can't see they could complain about UK Business Directory Database though.