Trademark Issue - What the deal!

[tatstar]

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I've started to receive letters from the solicitors who represent cleardebt.

Basically what they are saying is that anything with the phrase 'cleardebt' in the url, i.e any words before or after cleardebt is a no go!

None of my websites are passing off as cleardebt, which would be wrong, but they do have the the phrase cleardebt in the url. What do you reckon I should do?

[HotRobot]

I would argue that the phrase 'clear debt' is a generic term however i guess this would be interpreted by its use. if your domain was 'youcancleardebt.co.uk' I would argue that you would be perfectly entitled to use it without infringing the trademark.

It appears that the trademark that has been registered is 'ClearDebt', I think it is more important that you website trading name doesn't infringe this. I can't claim to be an expert on this so perhaps somebody could help me out. Say your website was the aforementioned example and your company was called 'You Can Clear Debt'. Surely you would be perfectly entitled to have a domain name with 'cleardebt' in. without being accused of 'passing-off'?

As you haven't mentioned the domains it is hard to give a definitive answer, do you act as an agent for 'ClearDebt'? (In which case it may be in their terms that you are not to use their TM)

[tatstar]

Nah, I have no affiliation with cleardebt.

And none of my websites that have the phrase 'cleardebt' in the url, have content that is 'passing-off' to be cleardebt.

Their view is that any url name that has the phrase cleardebt is violating their trademark. If think they are just trying it on.

Its completely out of order for them to think that anyone thinking of cleardebt, really are thinking about them.