Trademarks and Acorn Software.

A RISC OS Software company that has long since exited the RISC OS market trademarked their name. The company (and trademark?) has changed hands at least once since¹ The trademark (possibly with IPR) has been sold to a company that is now using the original name. They have had ebay cancel listings of ours for software we bought new direct from the original company claiming we are infringing their trademark.

Any ideas if they right?
or pointers to relevant information please.

When the Acorn trademark was owned by a PC company they never tried stopping Dealers and others from using the name. I suspect this problem may well happen again.

¹ A receiver may have been involved at one step. Though I’m not sure if that makes any difference legally.

We still have quite a lot of new unsold stock from this publisher which has been trickling out the door.

You really need legal advice here.

As far as I understand it (though this may only be America), one is obligated to defend a trademark. It’s not the same as a copyright.

However, them claiming the name does not make the old stuff simply vanish.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-marks-invalidation

They have had ebay cancel listings of ours for software we bought new direct from the original company claiming we are infringing their trademark.

That’s illegal.
The product from the original owner of the trademark is a legitimate use of the trademark that may or may not be their current target market. It was a legitimate sale for re-distribution that put the product in your hands.
If the RO community is not the target for their current product line, then they may be missing a potential (small) market. If they have the IPR, then a sensible move on their part would be to either exploit that in the small market or to sell the IPR to someone in the market with a condition that it be rebranded.

Unfortunately legality doesn’t enter in to it, if someone sends a copyright take down notice to any large internet company (ebay, youtube, etc) they will take down the material automatically, and the onus is then on you to prove it’s non infringing. Even if you get the content reinstated, the company will likely just send another take down. The only way to stop it is to get an injunction against the company sending take downs, and that wont come cheap.

Perhaps pause for a wee while, then insert a U+2009 THIN SPACE in the former company’s name in your listings so it doesn’t appear in trivial searches.

Thanks for all the comments. You have confirmed my initial thoughts. I will take appropriate action.

I won’t say more publicly as the offending company may read this.

Chris Evans

Sounds like you’ve been hit with a VeRO takedown.

I believe you will have received an email stating how to contact them and the reason for the takedown. It’s possibly because the items were listed as “new”, which allows any trademark holder to file a complaint to enforce their trademark. Another reason would be if they thought you were selling copies/fakes.

The correct course of action would be to contact the entity that filed the complaint, which gives them a limited time to respond. If they don’t, you can take it up with eBay customer support.

One thing you should avoid doing, is listing any other products from that vendor until it’s resolved as like YouTube, you can get banned for repeated violations.