BBC
“We're not the most aggressive brand owner in terms of protection,” says Diane Hamer, trademark attorney at the BBC. For a corporation that offers almost unparalleled online services, from its multitude of websites to its diverse range of television programmes, this may seem like a surprising stance.
“Tere is one example, however, which we most oſten cite as the pinnacle of what we find intolerable,” says Hamer. “It was something that we considered to be a grave breach of our rights.”
From 1997 to 2002, Teletubbies was a popular children’s TV programme in the UK that soon migrated to countries including the US and India. One day, BBC lawyers came across a website that incorporated the Teletubbies name but was used to display pornography. Te corporation’s concerns were obvious. While the website was soon removed, it was just one of example of the many potential sources of cybersquatting and infringement that the BBC faces. Hamer says with the increasing availability of digital technology, there has been an “explosion in infringement”.
“Te ease of registering domain names that include our brand names means it’s almost impossible for us to combat that kind of potential infringement. I’m not saying that every domain name that embodies one of our brands—whether it’s the BBC brand itself or one of our programme brands—is necessarily an infringement, because I think it’s perfectly possible that people have legitimate reasons for registering those names. But some of them are cases where people have registered websites specifically to draw traffic away from us or to carry out commercial activity on the back of our public service activity.”
She adds: “Similarly, because people registering domain names are not obliged to give their full contact information, one of
the biggest difficulties we have is identifying the infringer.”
As one of the largest and most-recognisable broadcasters in the world, the BBC is used to dealing with threats to its intellectual property. And as Diane Hamer, a trademark attorney at the corporation, tells TB&I, those threats are on the increase.
www.worldipreview.com
Hamer explains that, like many other large brands monitoring infringement online, the BBC relies on a “watch service” that notifies the company every time someone registers a domain with the term ‘BBC’ in it. “What oſten comes to our attention are news websites that have been mocked up to look like BBC news sites, but which are carrying content that we have not authorised.”
Tese types of websites pose an added threat. While the sites may (or may not) include a BBC trademark, and if they do would be seen as a typical cybersquatted websites, they also display copyright-infringing material.
Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 4 21
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