Help with dispute with similar name company

[firstrung]

First post sorry it's a bit heavy, but I'll keep it short. Having problems with a UK company that has a similar name to ours operating in a similar business environment. They obviously wanted our domain we have the full suite, they added a few letters and began trading. Heh, it's a big world and they were very bad at what they do, so I kinda ignored it. However, now they are now accusing us of violating their trademark insisting they registered theirs first, which they did. Then they tried to register our trademark and have now taken to using our company title in their search results which has had the effect of us slipping down the google ratings and them leap frogging us. They have also aped our proposition, in so many ways, to deliberately confuse our audience that they are we.
Our traffic dwarves theirs, we have 25k results in Google they have 700. We have 13K pages listed they have 260 etc
Now legal fights are expensive in the UK, they know this, it'd cost 25k to get an injunction, which they'd have overturned easily IMHO. Any ideas anyone? Could I complain to Google? Would Google be able to see that they are on a campaign to destroy our credibility and reputation? Could Google kick them off if they see they're using our name in their titles etc? That would be a huge step for us as I'm concerned that they're nicking our customers...
Thnaks

[Quadrille]

Seems to me that you have two clear and very different choices.

One is to fight them through the courts, the other is to beat them in the market place.

Personally, I'd go for the latter; start protecting your name (as you should have done the moment they kicked off!), but concentrate on better SEO, better content, and better customer service.

Without knowing the details, it's impossible to take a view on the 'legal' side - spending some cash for legal advice would be (for once!) money very well spent.

But Google will not want to get involved in your legal battle; and provoking the other party by trying to involve google may leave you no choice but an expensive legal case.

So I'd go for simply 'being better', with whatever late-in-the-day defences you can muster.

BTW, I'm not a lawyer, etc., etc ... Good Luck :)

[BigDave]

Just fill out the paperwork to start invalidation proceedings [patent.gov.uk].

Invalidation is the legal procedure that allows anyone to try and remove a registered trade mark from our register. You may apply to remove the entire registration, or only some of the goods or services it covers.

The main reasons why you may want to invalidate, or partly invalidate, the registration of a trade mark are:
<snip>
you own a trade mark (which does not have to be registered itself) which is the same as, or similar to, the proprietor’s trade mark.

[firstrung]

Guys, thanks the advice, really appreciated, yes we are trying to better the opponent in every way, the main concern now is their attempts at destructing our goodwill by deliberately trying to confuse themselves with us.
I reckon for the 200 quid the invalidation process is a brilliant master stroke of a suggestion particularly if I object under the single class that affects our business =;¬)

[buckworks]

However, now they are now accusing us of violating their trademark insisting they registered theirs first, which they did.

Do you mean to say their name was already trademarked at the time you purchased the domain?

[firstrung]

No, we have owned the principal domain since 1999, however, we didn't trade until 2002 and not on the web until 2003. They registered their domain in 2003 and then traded in 2003. They registered their trademark in 2003. They then attempted to register our trading mark in 2006 which naturally we have opposed on the basis we have earlier rights and their application is clearly in bad faith.