Trademark Infringment Solicitors

CptSternn

Hi. I was hoping someone here could recommend a good solicitor here in Ireland who handles trademark infringement.

I woke up the other day to find a dozen or so notifications on Facebook that a company had 'liked' many pages which I administer. Normally this is no problem, but this time it turns out the company has a name one letter different than my own (they added an 'S' to the end of the company name) and have listed a dozen or so customers of mine whom for I have developed websites as their own, in an obvious effort to confuse people who read the domain name and might not notice the single 'S' difference.

They are taking credit for my work on their website and on their just created Facebook page. Neither place lists ANY contact information, just a contact form, to which I have emailed a couple times now with no response. They have hidden their domain registrar information through a pay service that hides the actual company information for them, so I have not be able to find out anything about this person or persons.

I have of course contacted Facebook, the registrar, and the ISP and am awaiting their response but having dealt with a similar issue previously I found you need an actually solicitor to get any one of the above groups to move on any cease and desist demands.

I am hoping to find a solicitor who can help me with this issue. Thanks in advance!

johnnyskeleton

Lets not be coy about this - there are a number of solicitors who can deal with this complaint but it very much depends on your budget.

You could go to a top 5 firm (a&l, mops, arthr cox, mccann Fitzgerald or William fry) but they will probably charge you top dollar.

You might get a better, more personal, service from the second tier firms eg mason Hayes & curran, beauchamps, dillon eustace etc but they will also charge quite a lot.

On the other hand, you could go to your local solicitor who is known in your area to be competent and to charge reasonable rates. Ask a few other businesses in your area and see what they say.

Tow

This is not much you can do if you have not registered your company name as a trademark in the first place. In any event this is a list of trade mark agents: http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/trademark_agents_register.aspx

CptSternn

Cheers for that!

krd

CptSternn wrote: »

Neither place lists ANY contact information, just a contact form, to which I have emailed a couple times now with no response.

Fill out the contact form pretending to be an individual looking for website design. They'll get in touch then. And you can find out who it is.

CptSternn

krd wrote: »

Fill out the contact form pretending to be an individual looking for website design. They'll get in touch then. And you can find out who it is.

Never thought of that - good idea sure!

D3sperado

Do a bit of research and find someone who specialises in trade mark matters. If you get the right person they should be able to hopefully nip it in the bud for you quickly with a strongly worded letter. The worst consequence in these circumstances is that it would start to affect your brand awareness with existing/potential customers so you generally have to get the ball rolling pretty quickly.

Also do you have a trade mark registration? If not you should think about looking to apply for one ASAP. Its much easier to chase down a copycat company if you have a trade mark registered. Prices for this type of work have come down a lot in recent years even with the big firms so you should look for some quotes.