I have a limited company, let’s say it’s called Zerrah Biscuits Ltd. A sole trader has set up a biscuit business 100 miles away, simply called Zerrah. Not a limited company.
Obviously this is a problem. We’re in separate locations but I ship orders nationwide. They are coming up on a Google search for my business and it could confuse my online customers. I don’t think they’re passing themselves off as me, I think they just happened to pick the same word (because it’s a word to describe biscuits in my language and they’re from the same ethnic origin). Obviously they didn’t look to see if there was an existing business, they just set up a website and started using the name.
My first instinct is to trademark the word Zerrah for baking and biscuits, and then tell the other person to stop. But I can’t afford a huge legal fight if they refuse. Also I’m worried they’ll say I trademarked it after they started using it, so it wasn’t trademarked at the time they started.
Does anyone have any advice please?