Dixons, owner of PC World, has threatened legal action against
its biggest rival, Time, over Time’s proposed re-branding of its
shops as The Computer World, according to a report in The Sunday
Telegraph. Dixons alleges that the public will be confused by the
similarity of the names.
Time recently acquired Tiny, a smaller competitor which had gone
into administrative receivership, and then announced that the 150
Tiny and Time stores would re-brand as The Computer World. There
are fewer PC World outlets, but each PC World shop is considerably
bigger than those of Time which, according to Time, will dispel any
confusion over the names.
Dixons claims it has carried out extensive consumer research
showing that consumers would be confused: they think PC World and
The Computer World are connected. This is an important finding in
an action of passing off. It is likely that Dixons will claim both
passing off and trade mark infringement.
However, among the arguments that Time may use in its defence is
the relatively generic nature of the names. For example, there are
two other British companies called Computer World Services and
World of Computers, both of which pre-date PC World. PCWorld.com is
the web site for PC World, the world's largest computer magazine,
with a readership of nearly 6.9 million. The publication is owned
by media company IDG, unconnected to the Dixons group. IDG also
owns an IT information services company called Computer World,
using the domain name ComputerWorld.com. To add to the confusion,
one of the longest running home PC magazines in the UK is called
Personal Computer World, or PCW. It is owned by VNU
publications.
