YouView sued for trademark infringement, launches with third telco

Cheltenham-based telecommunications company Total has taken its trademark battle with connected TV operator YouView to a new stage by issuing High Court proceedings against the catch-up TV service for infringement of its registered trademark, Your View.

Following its defeat of YouView’s appeal in the trademark dispute between the pair, Total has filed a claim for damages and for an injunction to prevent YouView from using its mark in a way that infringes Total’s trademark.

Total’s move follows an earlier decision by the Trade Marks Registry in favour of the company’s opposition of the registration of YouView’s trademark and YouView’s unsuccessful to the High Court to reverse the decision.

YouView applied to the Trade Marks Registry to register the name ‘youview’ in various lower-case forms in 2010, six months after Total registered the YourView mark for its online customer portal. The Trade Marks Registry hearing on the case earlier this year found that YouView’s trademark was “confusingly similar” to Total’s trademark. YouView unsuccessfully appealed on the grounds that its goods and services were not likely to be confused with Total’s.
Separately, YouView is now available in the Channel Islands.

Telco JT has begun offering a free YouView set-top box with selected fibre and broadband packages. Customers in Jersey and Guernsey can also purchase a box for a one-off cost of £299 (€230) for the 1TB version or £249 for the 500GB model.

Barna Kutvolgyi, managing director of JT’s global consumer business unit said, “We are delighted to introduce YouView exclusively into the Channel Islands’ market as a cost effective alternative to subscription based TV services and as an enhancement to existing free-to-air TV.  Which is why we are also very proud to be among the first UK internet service providers to introduce YouView which is backed by the leading national TV channels, so bringing a new way of watching television to more homes.”

YouView, a joint-venture project between BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva, launched in July. It offers seven day catch-up services from BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5 as well as a library of on-demand television programmes, films and radio.