A Case Study - The Gamrie Goat

 Company: The Gamrie Goat, which produces and sells hand made goat’s milk soaps

Trade Mark Issue

Founder of The Gamrie Goat, Christine Ralph, found another company using the US version of her internet domain name and so applied to register her trade mark through Trade Mark Direct.  Once the trade mark was pending she contacted the US company and reclaimed her internet domain name.

Background

Christine Ralph is the entrepreneur behind The Gamrie Goat, which produces ethical soaps made from goat’s milk.  Christine makes the soap from milk from the goats living on her family croft in Gamrie, Aberdeenshire.

Christine wasn’t concerned about her business’ identity as she never thought for one moment that someone would want to copy her small, uniquely named business.

In 2008 Christine found another goat’s milk soap company had been using photos from her website, she complained to the web hosting company who took the rather drastic measure of taking down her competitor’s website.  This competitor then registered a domain name virtually identical to Christine’s – a typo squat.  Alarmed by this discovery Christine did an internet search and found yet another company using the domain name TheGamrieGoat.com to sell goats’ milk products.  Christine had only registered www.thegamriegoat.co.uk, again never considering that anyone would want to copy The Gamrie Goat.

The domain name had been registered just after The Gamrie Goat had received some good publicity in the newspapers and she realised with a start that she didn’t have a registered trade mark.

The Solution

Some brief internet searching later and she discovered Trade Mark Direct, whose unique search technology meant she could begin her trade mark search that evening. 

Her application underway, Christine contacted the American company using the site name TheGamrieGoat.com informing them that she had a trade mark pending; they handed over the domain name free of charge.  Christine is certain that having a trade mark pending greatly strengthened her case.

Christine said: “Registering your trade mark is essential.  No matter how small your business is or how secure you think you are, you need a trade mark, I would urge any small business to register one.”

For more information on how to apply for a trade mark go to www.trademarkdirect.co.uk

Popular posts from this blog

Word Marks? Logo Marks? What’s The Difference?

  So a trademark is your brand, which can be in a form of a word, picture, symbol, or a combination of these. Interestingly enough, 3D objects and sounds can also be registered aside from word trademarks and logo marks. What it does, is to seperate your brand from other goods and services that your competitors may offer. You should consider owning a trademark because it protects you and your consumers from counterfeit and fraud. Also, legal action for a trademark infringement is relatively cheap, sometimes as little as a few thousand pounds, compared to the hundreds of thousands of pounds you have to pay for an action claim of passing off in UK, same goes in the US. Trademarks allow the Trading Standards Officer or the police to criminally charge against counterfeit who use your trademark without your consent. It’s a good way to protect your hard earned good name, don’t you think? But what exactly will you register? A  word mark  registers the word itself you want to use,...
Read more

Trademark Registration dispute over Keep Calm and Carry On

Image
   WE NEED YOU! Join us to fight for the right of UK businesses to use the much loved slogan ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’ When  ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’  was used by the British Government in 1939, Britain was facing a possible invasion. Today, we are seeing the long arm of Europe encroaching on our national heritage again. The EU has granted an EU Community Trade Mark to  ‘KEEP CALM AND  CARRY ON’  meaning that only one company may use the slogan for  clothing, mugs, posters and other memorabilia. This could potentially put  many companies out of business. This is wrong and we do not believe it would have been accepted by the UK Trade Mark Registry for the following reasons: ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’  is part of the UK’s national heritage, first being used in 1939 on government posters to strengthen morale in the face of a possible German invasion Prior to the trade mark being registered, many businesses used  ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’ ...
Read more

Maintaining UK TM rights derived from EU registrations

  So as explained in an earlier post, when the UK left the EU cloned new trademarks were created at the UKIPO for owners of registered, active EU trademarks. These new trademarks have the same registration date as the EU trademark and are identical in every respect, other than the tacit assumption they were created under UK trademark law. As with any trademark, the new UK trademarks need to be maintained. Renewal of UK trademarks is required every 10 years from date of regsitration, starting from 6 months before the renewal date. If you miss the renewal date there is a 6 month grace period. Renewal in this period is essentially the same with no loss of rights though there is a penalty fee to pay. £1 for ‘late renewal’. The official fees payable to the UKIPO for renwewing a UK trademark are £200 for the first class of goods or services, and £50 for each extra class. Renewals for non UK resident owners requires a UK representative. If you would like cost effective trademark represent...
Read more