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A court has taken a dim view of YouView, ruling that Lord Sugar’s TV service is guilty of trademark infringement — but YouView “has no intention of changing its name”.
The High Court in London upheld an earlier decision that YouView infringed the trademark of a service called YourView. Gloucestershire company Total Ltd registered the name YourView (with an R) in 2009, nine months before YouView (no R) registered its moniker in 2010.
Total’s YourView isn’t TV-related, it’s an online billing service. Claiming there’s no conflict, YouView has vowed not to change its name, adding, “This matter is complex and subject to a number of ongoing legal actions and will be settled in the courts.”
YouView is a set-top box that turns any telly into an Internet-powered smart TV, pulling the major broadcasters’ catch-up services into your regular TV guide. The company is a coalition formed of ISPs and the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
ISPs BT and TalkTalk offer the box as part of a broadband contract, but to buy the YouView box on its own costs £300. Still, we like the service a lot — even awarding it a coveted CNET Editors’ Choice rosette.
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YouView has poured a bunch of money into forcing the name into our brains — you’ve no doubt seen the adverts with famous telly characters projected onto buildings — so a name change would be a disaster.
Should YouView change its name or is Total just after a payday? Have you tried YouView? Tell me your views in the comments or on our Facebook page.
