Trademarks - David versus Goliath fight over the word "here"

By : Administrator
Published 2nd February 2015 |
Read latest comment - 25th February 2015

Just shows no matter how good your idea, if a big boy thinks you are stepping on their patch, things can get messy.

Nokia has got heavy with a London based technology company who have launched a personal assistant app called HERE. 

"Here helps you tell people where you are and easily tell people you have arrived"

www.lowdownapp.info

But Nokias argument is that they have invested a fortune in rebranding Nokia Maps to HERE which provides location services data for the likes of Amazon, Garmin, BMW and Oracle, as well as map services for Windows smart phones Android operating systems.

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you think? Is it fair for Nokia to bully a small company like this over the use of a generic word? Is this trademark infringement as Nokia has claimed, ie the use of the word relating to computer software or an app?

Certainly food for thought if you are thinking about Trademarking a word or phrase, or if a particular word is key to your brand, find out if you can use it!

But whatever happens, it's been great publicity, so every cloud... 


Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn
Comments

Interesting post.. The word "Here" is so generic that you would think it would be too vague to be awarded a trademark..


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