what do I do here?

pgj2015

Say I have a company called carlowlimos.ie and someone sets up carlowlimos.com and advertises the same business in the same area.

I have my company name registered and own the website.

Peregrinus

Is he actually running a limo hire business and taking customers from you? Assuming your business is well-established and has brand recognition, you can bring a passing-off action against him, seeking damages for loss of trade and/or an injunction to restrain him from carrying on business under a name confusing similar to yours.

SPC1759

Company name registration doesn’t help much. But trade mark registration could help a lot. A TM registration can be enforced in parallel with passing-off and is much easier to enforce.

The first to file generally gets the rights, so you should at least apply for TM registration before approaching the competitor. Worst case scenario is that you alert them and they register the TM before you do. If that happens, you could be stopped yourself unless you have a strong prior reputation, which would be messy and expensive to prove.

A descriptive name like, say, Carlow Limos could be difficult to register but proof of your reputation could help to get it through.

The registration process would take a few months but you don’t have to wait for it to be completed before taking action against the competitor, as the registration will eventually back-date to the application date.

Professional input from a trade mark agent/attorney would be a good investment at the outset.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409425#Comment_120409425

They arent running a limo business, what they did was set up the website and list other limo businesses on the website. who knows why they did this, possibly to make money for themselves by taking money from the businesses listed on the website.

cml387

Is this the guy you were going to report for not having insurance?

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409572#Comment_120409572

No.

You have learnt a lesson about brand protection in domain names. You should have registered the .com too... Now someone else does. Oh well.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409697#Comment_120409697

Im not that worried about that, my business is well established and they wont get away with trying to operate that business in the same area I operate in.