Originally Posted by petec2

I am in a very similar situation but a bit more complex i think, i tried to trademark our then new company name back in the early 1990's through uk official channels but was told at the time that it was too generic. I still have the paperwork from this application and response i believe.

I registered the .co.uk domains with and without the '-' hyphen in 1996 and several variation since then and it is now an established marketing service and online directory covering the whole of the uk. genericsubjectpages.co.uk.

I have recently been informed by some of my clients that they have been approached by this relatively new set up which has added uk to the beginning of the name and added two '- hyphens. ie www. uk-genericsubject-pages.co.uk
To make matters worse they are spamming companies to go on their directory, i have even received one myself ! Which proves it is spam or they have a lot of cheek !

They have ben offering cheap deals to attract business and have now built up quite a few links which will obviously affect me and cause confusion when someone searches 'genericsubject pages' we are near top above them but if they include uk to beginning they are top and we are now second.
I don't mind competition but i feel this has been a blatant step to ride on the success of our established name.

I wonder what google or nominet the uk domains registry would think of this and what do you think the best way forward would be. The domain appears to have been registered by an individual for approximately 2 years.

Do we have potential to claim the domain name under the 'likelihood of confusion' rule or does that just apply to trademarked names. Also if we now attemptedto trademark the name would we have more chance of success now it has been a registered domain for over 12 years? And if we did manage to register it would we then be able to take appropriate action even though the offending domain was registered before the trademark if it was given?

If so is this an expensive process and how long would it be likely to take.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help wiith some advice on this matter.

Peter