Hi guys, i want to try and keep this short and sweet. Basically, i'm starting a web design business in the UK for a UK audience. The name i'm thinking of having is already a company offering the same services in America. They own the .com domain and i am buying the .co.uk domain. Can i get into any trouble with this now or in the future? Thanks for any advice Alan
It depends upon whether there is a trademark on the US business name and whether you are acquiring the domain name in bad faith. I would say that if you are going to be doing the same exact thing, and they have a registered trademark that you will lose an arbitration proceeding if one is initiated. On another note, why would you want to use the same name as another company in the same space? When you are thinking about names and trademarks you want to stand out from the pack. Picking a name that is identical to someone else in the industry will lead to trademark issues, confusion and while it might help a new business at the start to acquire customers it is a long term losing strategy. -Gene Patent Attorney & Founder of IPWatchdog.com
If its any help, I know that in the UK you cannot register a business name the same as another name in the same sector. Im not sure though whether this applies just to the UK or not, but personally, I would choose a unique name.
In the US you can actually register a business name that is identical to someone else, as strange as that sounds. You can do this because in the US the authorities responsible for forming the business are the State officials. One State will not give you a name already had by another business in the same State, but a different State would and could. The reason the rule is different in the US with respect to trademarks is because the US Trademark regime is federal. This is a generalization because each State can also issue trademarks, but only a federal US trademark is worth anything real in the US. -Gene
I do not think there would be any problem if the name is not copyrighted in UK. Firefox was copyrighted in US and was copyrighted by another company is UK.
It only matters if the US company has an international trademark. If they do (and they probably do not unless they are Fortune 1000), then you can't go ahead with this.