US firm selling same product with same name

[HobbyMounts]

I wondered whether there was anything I could do about this. It's a simple product we developed, created, named and have been selling. The BBC has taken a number of these but I have just seen a US company selling the same product for the same purpose with the same name.

We don't have a trademark but we've been selling ours for just over 6 months and we checked there was nothing else on the market at the time with the same name and I've just been made aware of this other product.

Anything I can do about this?

 

[harper101]

That's weird, and quite suspicious!

I am sure that there's no such a thing as coincidental for the same product/same name. What do you mean you don't have a trademark?
And then that US same product has a trademark?

 

[fisicx]

No trademark means no protection. Even if you had a uk trademark it still wouldn't prevent a us company using the name. Get onto the IPO today, get registered and hopefully stop them selling in the uk.

 

[HobbyMounts]

We didn't register it as a trademark but it seems they might have, although I haven't checked via any official channels yet.

I was under the impression even non-registered trademarks had some protection, under common law? Ie, if you can prove it was your trademark first, you get some cover?

Just not sure how to go about finding out and wording a formal letter of complaint. Apparently even threatening legal action can be a crime in the US unless evidence is on your side.

 

[CompactLaw]

Yes, you should contact the IPO to see about registration and to check whether a trademark is in the process of being registered. If they have submitted a registration ahead of you, you have a serious problem.

If you need a lawyer to give some initial advice we can find one for free for you. Most will provide an initial consultation, after that it will start costing money - unfortunately.

If things are really bad it may be easier to think of another product name and then protect that - registering the following:

- company name
- trademark(s)
- domain name and all obvious variations in name and domain (.com .net .co.uk)

Unfortunately all this costs money.