The Company Names tribunal has ruled that a company called Coke Cola must change it's name and pay £700 to soft drink behemoth Coca Cola.
Coca Cola argued that the name Coke Cola Limited was misleading and takes advantage of Coca Cola's famous trade marks. Coke Cola made no opposition and must now change their name and pay £400 towards Coca Cola's application fee and £300 towards their costs. The ruling is historic as it is the first to be decided by a Company Name Adjudicator, this role was introduced by the Companies Act 2006 and came into force on the 1st of October (this year).
Under the Companies Act 2006 anyone can file an objection with the Company Names Adjudicator if a new company is incorporated under a name associated with the complainant, for which the complainant has goodwill or in fact a name that is similar and is likely to mislead a consumer by suggesting a connection between the businesses.
IP Freely is a big fan of this part of the new Companies Act (although it is not a fan of the staggered implementation of the act as a whole which merely provides for CONFUSION!) as previously it was difficult to object to 'similar' company names. Basically if it wasn't identical it wasn't worth complaining about and if it was identical then no one else could have registered it anyway!
On a more important note IP Freely has yet to see the Coca Cola Christmas Ad.....................
Coca Cola argued that the name Coke Cola Limited was misleading and takes advantage of Coca Cola's famous trade marks. Coke Cola made no opposition and must now change their name and pay £400 towards Coca Cola's application fee and £300 towards their costs. The ruling is historic as it is the first to be decided by a Company Name Adjudicator, this role was introduced by the Companies Act 2006 and came into force on the 1st of October (this year).
Under the Companies Act 2006 anyone can file an objection with the Company Names Adjudicator if a new company is incorporated under a name associated with the complainant, for which the complainant has goodwill or in fact a name that is similar and is likely to mislead a consumer by suggesting a connection between the businesses.
IP Freely is a big fan of this part of the new Companies Act (although it is not a fan of the staggered implementation of the act as a whole which merely provides for CONFUSION!) as previously it was difficult to object to 'similar' company names. Basically if it wasn't identical it wasn't worth complaining about and if it was identical then no one else could have registered it anyway!
On a more important note IP Freely has yet to see the Coca Cola Christmas Ad.....................
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