Infringement of business name

jackkarter

I have a legal question which for me is a bit of a grey area. I built a website for research purposes, a disposable one if you like with a long tailed url. for example, www.green-bananas-for-sale.com which sells green bananas. I get an email while later from a chap who has exactly the same url except it's a .ie domain and a registered business name with the CRO and thats it. His site also sells green bananas.
He asks me to remove any thing on the site that relates to "Green bananas for sale". Normally I would oblige because it's a throw away site like I said and the whole tone of the letter was quite aggressive.
I could not find any trace of any trademark for that term and as far as I know having a registered business name isn't the same as a trademark and I have no idea why he thinks he could copyright "green bananas for sale"

I was wondering does he have any right to write such an aggressive letter.

Peregrinus

Registering a business name doesn't, in itself, give you any exclusive rights to the use of the name. If you're carrying on business under a name not your own you are obliged to register that name; the purpose is not to protect your interests but to enable customers, creditors etc to find out who they are dealing with when they do business with "green-bananas-for-sale".

However, if he is actually doing business under that name (as opposed to merely registering that name) he may then have a cause of action. He may then have a cause of action for "passing off" if someone else starts doing business under the same name, or a confusingly similar one. If he is doing business throught his website, and the existence of your confusingly-similarly-named website causes him to lose business (because people looking for his website end up at yours) then he may have a cause of action.

You say you built your site "for research purposes", but you also say that your site "sells green bananas". Are you actually doing any business through it, or using its name? And, if so, is your business remotely similar to the business he is doing? And was he doing it first? If so, there may be a problem.

Mr. Incognito

Green bananas is descriptive.

One cannot register a trade mark that is simply descriptive unless one can show that it has acquired distinctivness through use.

A registered business name gives no rights. The cro doesn't look at the bona fides of any name.

For passing off to be successful one has to show
1. That there is goodwill in a product or service.
2. There is a misrepresentation which leads others to believe the misrepresented product is the same or connected to the product which has established goodwill.
3. There is damage to the goodwill

As you are not engaged in any trade it would be difficult to prove any loss to his trade.

I don't think you have much to worry about.

Losty Dublin

I have owned a few internet domains over the years and e mails like this came in occasionally, ultimately looking to cadge money off of me for various loose ended reasons. Take no heed of any communications re same until they arrive in print form on headed paper via your postman.