company name problem?

cyclopopcicle

cyclopopcicle

cyclopopcicle

Associate
Joined
30 Aug 2003
Posts
1,418
hi
i have had business cards for my driving school made with the name M.S.M as my name is mark.
but today i received an email

Hi Mark,

I hope that you will be very successful with your driving school under the name of Marks School of Motoring.

I have noticed that when advertising your business you have placed the abbreviations 'MSM' above 'Marks School of Motoring'.

However, 'MSM' was registered to myself in July 1971, and therefore, you are not permitted to trade under this name.

I assume that you were not aware that 'MSM' was already registered to myself. Therefore, please remove 'MSM' from all your advertising and refrain from using it in any context in the future and no further action will be required. Please acknowledge this e-mail.

Yours sincerely, and best wishes for the future


where do i stand on this?

i have looked in yell.com and there are numerous others with this same abbreviations on the advert, should he not also contact them?

or is there nothing he can do?

cheers
 
well I would be asking for proof first of all that he has it still registered under his name and if there are others using the same abbreviations maybe give them a quick ring and ask if they have been informed about it to ?
 
What business is he in?

As I understand it he can't enforce this if he is in a different industry. Example being Apple Inc and Apple Corp. When Apple moved into music industry with iTunes etc Apple Corp moved for trademark infringement because they were now operating in the same industry.
 
i have just checked and he is an ADI also, as are all the others i have checked on yell.com
:(

i have checked his address and i know the street very well as i grew up there, and my parents still live very near (within 3 streets) and i have never seen an instructors car there.
 
write back to him and explain that because he hasn't registered a trademark he has no valid legal right to exclusive use of that term. i'd also explain the reasons you called yourself msm and say that you were not aware of him using the same term until he contacted you.
 
You could just register a company in that name (if there hasn't been one already). Check the Companies House website for any such name already registered.
 
cyclopopcicle said:
However, 'MSM' was registered to myself in July 1971, and therefore, you are not permitted to trade under this name.
Click to expand...

I would ask him where he has registered his business name. This will allow you to investigate further. There is a high possibility he is just chancing it as there are loads of MSM driving schools but there could be local implications like passing off etc, meaning your business appears to be his and his historical reputation may then act in the favour of your business.

However, if he operates close to you then I would suggest the best solution is to choose a new name to avoid any hassle. Why would you want to have the same name as a competitor? (unless of course you were passing off)
 
Jambo said:
I would ask him where he has registered his business name. This will allow you to investigate further. There is a high possibility he is just chancing it as there are loads of MSM driving schools but there could be local implications like passing off etc, meaning your business appears to be his and his historical reputation may then act in the favour of your business.

However, if he operates close to you then I would suggest the best solution is to choose a new name to avoid any hassle. Why would you want to have the same name as a competitor? (unless of course you were passing off)
Click to expand...

afaik ALL business names have to be registered with companies house.

as for the msm, this isnt actually your trading name as you are mark's school of motoring. unless 'MSM' is trademarked (like a mcdonalds M) i cannot see how he can stop you from using it.
 
here is a copy of an email i am going to send back to him (have not yet) what do you think? should i add more/take off ?

Hi
Thanks for your email, I was not aware of any local MSM driving schools, and would like to point out that my trading name is marks school of motoring not MSM
MSM is just part of my name i.e. Marks School of Motoring.
So see no harm in what I have advertised as
Also I have done a quick search on yell.com and see that there are 43 driving schools with MSM as part of their name, I take it you have contacted these also? Here is a link to that particular search
http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAc...oa=&M=0&ssm=0&rad=&lCOption32=Driving+Schools

could I also enquire where you registered the mark MSM
 
also i am a BSM instructor, just advertising for myself to get extra custom, so the only link to me is my cards and whatever i put on places like yell.com etc, so there is no car advertising by banner on the roof
 
When you register a trademark, you have to register it for particular service categories, so it is conceivable he has registered MSM for the purposes of running a driving school, as someone else said, search the database at:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/

Registering a UK company name at Companies House confers no intellectual property rights, so that won't help you.

Rgds

Radderfire
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom