Has another business started
using your name? What can/must you do to stop them?
Sydney Medical Services has provided after-hours
doctors for home visits since 1971 in the Sydney
Metropolitan region. Last year. it had 76,885 home visits.
Imagine its surprise when early this year it noticed
brochures advertising Sydney Medical Services 2020
for after-hours doctors for home visits, and a website which
looked very much like its own website. A copycat business
was using its name to lure its customers! How could this
happen? Doesn't registration on the National Names Register
mean that a competitor cannot register a similar name?
Sadly, no. A copycat competitor can register a nearly
identical name, if they are good enough to circumvent the
same name filters the Registry uses. That is where you
need a good lawyer and marketing consultant who will suggest
variations you can register, and domain name and trade mark
registrations, to protect one of your most important
business assets - your name. The lawyer will also be able
to obtain a Federal Court order to stop the copycat using
your name. In the case of Sydney Medical Services,
the Federal Court ordered the copycat business to stop using
the name. For more information on business name protection
click on my article
What must a business owner do to
protect against a copycat name? |