YouView faces injunction over trademark infringement

Today’s ruling marks the third successive win for Total over YouView in the dispute, which has been ongoing since 2012.

It also signals another blow for YouView which has recently seen its broadcaster shareholders slash funding for the service, according to the Guardian, and is facing further competition from the soon to be launched Freeview Connected smart TV initiative, with which it shares broadcaster shareholders including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

Total is now seeking an injunction against YouView as it looks to prevent further use of the brand name, together with other remedies such as financial payment and legal costs. Total says its YourView online customer portal is “core” to its long term strategy and YouView’s “persistent” infringement of the registered mark has left the company with no option but to take court action.

Lorrin White, Total managing director, says: “Whilst 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.”

YouView, meanwhile, says it plans to take the matter back to the court for the third time.

A YouView spokeswoman says: “We plan to appeal against the court’s decision, as 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.”

The dispute between the two companies first came to the courts in November 2012, when YouView lost its High Court appeal against the Trade Mark Registry’s rejection of its brand name application in a number of categories including broadcasting, on the grounds that it was “confusingly similar” to the YourView mark, which was registered in 2009.