Name for maypole business

[watervole]

I'm very taken with Birdsedge's suggestion of Springstep.  The only catch is that there's an American dance institution near Boston that uses that name.  Is that likely to cause any problems either legally or otherwise?

Given that I expect to remain a small scale business in the UK only, I don't see a conflict, but I thought I'd ask my flist if they know better.

The only UK business called Springstep is a dairy - I don't see that as an issue.

Comments

[crazyscot]

A UK trade mark search shows up the aforementioned dairy and a clothing label. Neither an OAMI (EU) nor WIPO (world) trademark search has no hits, if I've driven their website correctly.

Neither of the UK hits seems to clash with what you're doing as the trade mark categories they're registered under don't appear to cover maypoles - but I am not a major_clanger ...

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/domestic?domesticnum=2342963
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/domestic?domesticnum=2311900

As I see it the risk is of confusion; if people google for springstep, what will they find? You might very well decide to approach the Boston outfit and offer to co-link along the lines of "If you're looking for [those people] then visit [their website]".

[j-lj.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good name, good luck with the venture.

[coth.livejournal.com]

I like the name. Good luck with it.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

I don't think either business has Springstep registered as a trade mark and it's not as if you're trying to "pass off" your business as a dairy :-)

The only problem I can see is if you want to put up a web page for it, in which case something like springstep-uk should deal with that.

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

Might be worth contacting both of them to avoid any potential issues - particularly if there's any possibility of the US group wanting to branch out. But it's a good name. I did come up with Proctor and Gambol, but ...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Groan...

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

The dairy has UK registered trademark no. 2311900 for "Springstep", in the form of a logo which includes a picture of a goat; this is only registered under class 29 (food products, including milk and milk products). There is also UK registered trademark no. 2342963 held by a shoe company for "Spring Step", which is only registered under class 25 (footwear). Use of the name "Springstep" for something completely outside those classes would not be an infringement of the registered trademarks; it is possible for two different businesses to have the same name registered as a trademark, provided it is for completely separate types of goods or services. The US dance institution does not appear to have registered its name as a UK trademark.

If you planned to register the maypole business as a company in England & Wales, you may be able to call it "Springstep Ltd", but there is a recently dissolved company (no 05720873) with that name, so to avoid any potential confusion you may want to call it something like "Springstep Maypole Ltd".

[This is not provided as legal advice]

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's really helpful information and I greatly appreciate it.

I've no current plans to operate as a limited company.

[da-pol.livejournal.com]

If you were to act as Sole Trader you would be "Judith Proctor T/A Springstep" for official purposes, so no actual company naming conflict issues - Springstep would be a name used for publicity, but the company is just "Judith Proctor".

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Yep.

There are some nice and simple pages on the companies house website for trading names.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the name. As far as I'm aware there's no requirement for you to register the name. You can just use it. Registering it as a trademark may be something comepletely different and ylou'd need to take legal advice on that. We never registered Artisan. As long as the tax man knows what name you're trading under and your bank account is in order, I think you're good to go.

[sweetheartwhale.livejournal.com]

Spring Steps suggests more stuff, and names have meaning and there's already a place called Springstep.

[qutohive.livejournal.com]

I don’t bookmark sites but i will bookmark this! LOL!