A High Court has ruled that YouView infringes a trademark owned by independent telecommunications company Total Ltd., meaning that YouView could be forced to change its name.
YouView TV Limited is a joint venture involving the major TV channels and broadband providers – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva – and was previously chaired by Lord Sugar.
In a detailed 40 page judgement, Mr Justice Sales concluded that YouView’s set-top boxes and TV service, currently marketed via TalkTalk and BT among others, infringed Total’s ‘Your View’ trade mark.
YouView, which is currently used by approximately 1 million homes in the UK, argued that the trademark was invalid and that there was no infringement, however the argument was dismissed.
Total will now seek an injunction against YouView to prevent any further use of the name ‘YouView’, together with financial payment and legal costs.
“Whilst Total may not compare to YouView in terms of size, we both operate in the same industry space,” said Lorrin White, managing director of Total.
“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.
“Our integrated YourView products are core to the long term strategy of Total. We are a business that respects our partners, competitors and the wider industry, but YouView have persisted in their infringement of our registered mark, leaving us no option but to take action through the courts.”
A YouView spokesperson said: “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.”
