domain names issue

[gibbon]

Hi

I am in the UK and was wondering what the legal implications of this scenario was:

A competitor of mine trades under domain say "widget heaven"

However their registered company name is "special woggles limited" - (they do not trade under this name)

I bought the domain specialwoggles.co.uk & .com

I then redirected the domain to my own website.

Today I have received a letter advising me that I am "passing off" and to take away the redirect immediately

How do I stand on this? Does anyone have a similar situation.

I know that this was opportunist and a bit naughty, but the competitor was a friend, who then stole my idea and is just copying my whole business model. They are even using the same web designers that I used, the same suppliers and they began trading on the back of my name (I know this for a fact)

[Rubylily]

I can't offer legal advice, but a company I used to work for was involved in a similar situation a while back and we took legal advice from a specialist trademark solicitor. Yes, in the eyes of the law you are "passing off" and you should remove the redirect otherwise they could take action against you. It's their trademark and you are using it without permission. Whether or not they stole your idea is not really the issue here, sorry.