What?
No YouSue pun?
Lord Sugar's net-based TV service YouView lost a High Court appeal over the use of its brand name late last week. The trademark scuffle with little-known telco Total Ltd, which is based in Gloucestershire, could yet force YouView to limit use of its brand. The service, which is basically "iPlayer in hardware" is backed by …
Maybe they're not exactly the same, but there is still a fuzzy overlap and the potential for their brand to be cast into shadow. I personally can't believe Microsoft were thick enough to call their remote management suite "SMS". It may be in a different technical domain from text messages, but it didn't mean there wasn't room for confusion. Just try explaining to the non-techie manager that you're going to upgrade the software via SMS. Go on -- I dare you.
So there is the potential for incidental brand damage, even though they're not in direct competition....
From what I've read on their site, this YourView system seems to be a vaguely specified internal system for their clients so would have to agree it's not likely to cause any serious confusion to the clients or the public, most of whom won't even see it. Presumably the only similarity is it involves in some way looking at a screen?
Whether that makes it legally right is another matter, although I really do wonder why if it's not public facing, they bothered to trademark YourView.
Reading between the lines on their site they also hinted that it was very integrated into everything they do, which I can't help but think means "we've got it as a header on web pages" and might just possibly be an angle to say to YouView later on - well if you pay us X we'll go through the huge hassle of changing the name in a few places and changing the logo. Perhaps I'm being too cynical?
Alan Sugar has been hugely successful at selling the brand: "Alan Sugar".
Labour loved him. They made him a Lord, they gave him a job in Government. I even suspect one of the then Cabinet gave him a blowjob.
As to anything other than the brand "Alan Sugar", success is an orphan to him.
Let's see .... y o u v i e w ... no "r". ..... y o u r v i e w .... has an "r" in it
I''m more confused as to how the court thought these were "too similar" than any confusion that can be brought on by TWO DIFFERENT WORDS
Hang on .... what about "you're view" and let's get into There Their andThey're while we're at it .... despair
...er.... didn't they make the RUBBISH Sky+ box which keeps throwing a wobbly and crashes if it rains?
I was wondering about these YouView boxes, but if they are Amstrad produced, Alan Sugar can keep them!
I will wait till Samsung bring out something equivalent.