Website Legalities

I personally find it quite frustrating that perhaps it could cause some issues. As previously said my name martin turner is shared by a million others and the fact I want to be a photographer could be restricted because someone with the same name could argue I am losing him business. Even if I was to use a different suffix such as martinturnerphotoservice would mean he could raise the same questions as we much be basing this on 'martinturner' as photography cannot be solely used by him? If that makes sense?
 
I thought you could muscle him out if he wasn't a registered Ltd.

Take this with a pinch of salt.
 
rsatd said:
OP, what is the other guys trademark, is it mynamephotography or not? If not he has 0 case.
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http://www.martinturner.com/main/contact page.html
It looks like he's trading as Martin Turner Photography, although his domain is obv martinturner.com,

incidentally martin turner photography isn't a listed company with companies house, I don't know whether that makes a difference, but I'd imagine it lessens the risk to the OP, and definitely make it less likely that he's using a registered trademark of martin turner photography.
 
In terms of trademark, you're on solid ground.

There's certain terms that can't be registered as a trademark - names, places, words directly relating to your business field.

It isn't possible to register a trademark for Martin Turner Photography (name + word related to field).

Maybe ICANN's rules are tighter though?
 
Why not try to register it and see if its available for example? don' t know where to check, tryied using the .gov service, but it had too many random options and I was too lazy (and at work) to mess about with it. Feel free to give it a go if you want http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm.htm
 
You've got to love forums; as I honestly am not sure what to do. I thought there would have been a definitive answer. Its frustrating as I am Martin Turner and it is my Photography. I should be able to sell that how I see fit. Whether right or wrong I think he should have bought martinturnerphotography if that is his business name. I just saw that it was taken when I typed it into the domain providers website, its only after I bought mine that I noticed that mine will be for photography too. He is in Cardiff, I am in Bristol, our work is completely different ... is there really a problem? I am also worried about issues further down the line, as I know how greedy some people can get. For me, I have a full time job in a completely different field so this is more about having a professional portfolio offering prints (of the better stuff on my below Flickr) and a commission option; although thats more of a longer term goal.
 
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I don't see anything to stand in your way, he can't register it as a trademark, it's not a registered company name, and it is your name, the one thing I would suggest is branding it as something other than martin turner photography aside from the domain name, maybe the photography of martin turner or something, just to decrease the risk of stepping on his toes, I don't think you're in any way obliged to though.
 
Off topic; is he not going to see loads of hits coming from these forums going to his site? notifying him of this very thread?

Should I just give him a call to discuss? This is really a hobby for me and I don't want to impact on anyones business or for them to be worried about that. I would like to earn a few pennies from my work as I think I have got to a point where perhaps they may sell. I also don't want to be devious and register TMs etc, as I would be no better.
 
martinturner said:
Off topic; is he not going to see loads of hits coming from these forums going to his site? notifying him of this very thread
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If he checks then yes, we get a lot of site owners coming back to OcUK threads because they saw it in the stats.
 
DannyDan said:
If he does get upset about it, and since you're not competing with him anyway, perhaps you could offer to have a link to his website somewhere on the first page of yours?
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wtf :s NO.

Mate you're both freelance photographers don't worry about it there must be a hundred thousands martin turners.

And even if he did have a problem with it, these things cost a lot of money to take the court there'd be no point. you're hardly multimillion £ businesses. - you're being very paranoid
 
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Abraham made a link, which I did click as I was too lazy to normally type the url in the first place.
 
My understanding of these rules are that you have to legitimatly be using the address. Seeing as your name is the same, and you happen to be working with photography, its obvious that this is not malicious.
Had you registered the address, and not been named the same, and had no interest in photography, then he might have a case!
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
My understanding of these rules are that you have to legitimatly be using the address. Seeing as your name is the same, and you happen to be working with photography, its obvious that this is not malicious.
Had you registered the address, and not been named the same, and had no interest in photography, then he might have a case!
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Exactly, you've got nothing about worry about here. Sorry stoofa, your wrong on this one.

Microsoft are different as they have a trademark, but like has been said here, you can't register a name TM.
 
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