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Press Release
London 11 January 2001 - As widely reported yesterday, The Post Office is changing its name to Consignia at a reported cost of £2 million.
One of the reasons behind the change according to The Post Office's chief executive John Roberts was that: "The Post Office is a generic term which cannot be legally protected and does not differentiate the organisation from other postal administrations."
Why then is The Post Office spending considerable sums to 'legally protect' the use of 'post office'?
It may come as a surprise to hear that The Post Office is currently pursuing expensive legal action against the Name-Shop, owners of the domain name "post-office.co.uk" for allegedly infringing the trade mark "The Post Office".
The Post Office took exception to the company Name-Shop, who buy and sell generic domain names through their website, offering "post-office.co.uk" for sale. Although Name Shop was happy to submit the issue to a ruling by Nominet, the organisation responsible for the .uk domain names, The Post Office insisted on legal action in the High Court at maximum expense. The case is now set to be tried in July, more than 3 months after The Post Office will have changed its name.
Name-Shop has retained e-commerce legal specialist Simon Halberstam of Sprecher Grier Halberstam solicitors and counsel Jonathan D.C. Turner to defend the case. Name-Shop contend that the term "post office" is generic and point out that it is widely used on the internet, for example in the ubiquitous POP (Post Office Protocol) email service. Name-Shop has also counterclaimed that the trade marks registered for "The Post Office" are invalid and should be revoked since they are descriptive. It seems that the senior management of The Post Office agree.
Name-Shop buy and sell generic domain names through their website (http://www.name-shop.co.uk). They have sold nearly one hundred domain names, including "taste.co.uk" to J Sainsbury plc for £110,000 - believed to be a record price for a .co.uk domain. Name-Shop is owned by outdoor games suppliers Giant Games Limited.
SPRECHER GRIER HALBERSTAM LLP
For further information about the "Name-Shop", please see their website at http://www.name-shop.co.uk or call David Thurgate on 020-7703 3824.
For further information on this case, or notes on the law relating to domain names please telephone Simon Halberstam on 020 7544 5555 or email him at simonh@sghlaw.com
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