High Court rejects YouView trademark appeal

Court finds name 'confusingly similar' to billing service 'YourView'

YouView, the broadband digital TV box service that launched two years later than planned in July this year, has lost a High Court appeal to keep using its name.

Following a legal dispute that began in 2010 between the company and billing site YourView, the High Court yesterday found YouView's name to be "confusingly similar" to YourView's.

YouView has since said in a statement it "has no intention of changing its name", and intends to keep trading under that name for the time being.

"This matter is complex and subject to a number of ongoing legal actions and will be settled in the courts."

Stuart Baikie, managing director of Gloucestershire-based telecoms firm Total, which runs YourView, has said that the company now intends to seek an injunction against YouView, to not only force it to change its name, but also recoup damages and costs.

YouView officially launched in July, but was still slowly rolling out different branded boxes by September. Originally backed by Lord Sugar back in 2010, the service hopes to differentiate itself from other freeview digital systems by combining the contents of major services such as BBC iPlayer and 4OD under a unified user interface, which also allows hard-drive recording of specific shows across all services in the manner of Sky+.

But the £300 price tag for a box may be putting some users off; YouView has so far refused to publish its viewing figures, though TalkTalk, which is one of several providers offering a subscription deal, reported sign-up figures of 1,000 customers a day in November this year.