YouView facing injunction after High Court rules it infringed trademark
Internet TV service YouView could be forced to change its name after the High Court today ruled it is infringing a trademark owned by Total, an independent telecommunications company.
Total registered the name Your View in 2006 when it created an online portal for its customers to manage their accounts.
The ruling marks the third successive win for Total over YouView TV, which is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva.
YouView previously attempted to register the YouView trade mark in 2012 for its set top box software and hardware, but the move was blocked. YouView’s appeal against the ruling was rejected.
Lorrin White, managing director of Total commented on the win: “As a growing business, Total has always taken the protection of its intellectual property rights very seriously… While Total may not compare to YouView in terms of size, we both operate in the same industry space. We protect our rights to brand ownership and wholeheartedly defend those rights – as any business should - otherwise we would never have registered our marks in the first place…”
Total said it will now be seeking an injunction against YouView to prevent any further use of the name YouView, together with financial payment and legal costs.
In a statement, YouView said: "We maintain there is no confusion between our consumer-facing TV service, YouView, and the business-to-business billing platform, Yourview, provided by Total Ltd."
Just last month the online service was rumoured to be increasing its headcount by half as it aims to take on the might of Sky.