I have been working on a business idea for the last year, when I researched the product name and domain, I didn't find any duplicates. We are almost finished and also worked on a brand over this time. Last week we tried registering the domain and found it has already been registered (maybe a slip up in my research). It seems like the domain was registered in January, but all other information was redacted. Their company name is not registered at the cipc, my company name is different from the product (shared name in question). What is the implications for me in using this product name. From what I could find out is that we are planning to release our products at a similar time to the market.

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

Registering a domain name (e.g. www.Vital-Foods-Enterprises.co.za), or a company name (e.g. Vital Foods Enterprises (Pty) Ltd) does NOT in itself give you any protection in relation to a product called Vital Foods.

If you intend launching a product like Vital Foods, you need to protect the trade mark associated with that product.

There is an automatic common law protection available to you, however if somebody copies your brand, you will need to go to court to prove that you launched the brand first, and that you are the owner of the brand. This is called an unregistered trade mark.

You could also apply for a registered trade mark of the brand at the Registrar of Trade Marks office. That will then give you registered protection for the brand. If somebody copies your brand, you can then show them a copy of your trade mark certificate as proof that you have registered protections in that brand name.

So, my suggestion is that you urgently instruct a trade mark lawyer to assist you in performing a trade mark availability search for that brand to see if anyone else has registered that name yet; and if not, to apply yourself to register it.

I can't refer you to a specific lawyer, but I can direct you to the website --> Search through a list of 92 Law Firms, Lawyers and Attorneys who operate in Trademarks Practice Area <-- where you can find a list of qualified lawyers in your area who will be able to assist you further with the search and registration!

It really comes down to who has registered their trade mark first, or if there is NO registered trade mark, who has launched the product first - because they will then receive the common law unregistered trade mark protection.

Then, you can fight about who is entitled to register the domain name, and the company name, if that is important to you. 

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.