Great Western Coffee Shop

I've put this in the lighter side... But I appreciated for the new WCML Franchisee from December... It isn't particularly funny!

It appears that some chap on the 07/08/2012 has registered: www.firstwestcoast.co.uk and other associated domains!

I won't list the exact site I used to source this information as the silly b*gg*r hasn't omitted his registration details.

(Mods feel free to move to Frequent Posters if you feel it may be more appropriate there ;) )

I sense a disturbance in the force... Law suit maybe??  ;D :o :-X ;)

*gets popcorn*

This presupposes First Group go with the trading name First West Coast. First West Coast Ltd was the bid vehicle and is now the franchisee presumptive. But there's no indication that this will become the trading name.

Horizon Trains is a trade mark registered by First Group with the Intellectual Property Office. horizontrains.co.uk has been registered as a domain by First Group. And Horizon Trains Ltd is a company registered at Companies House where the most recently appointed director is Richard Parry, who will be MD for the new West Coast franchise.

Would you want the initials WC associated with your brand? Unless perhaps you are Armitage Shanks.

Whoever has been registering domains involving the words first, west and coast may well be out of luck if they were looking to make a quick buck.

Oh, and a search I carried out earlier this week gave me the name and address of the registrant of firstwestcoast.co.uk:

http://www.whois.com/whois/firstwestcoast.co.uk

As I said in another thread, merely registering a domain is not doing anything wrong.

You could be right BNM :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9473715/FirstGroup-could-rename-West-Coast-service-Horizon-Trains.html# (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9473715/FirstGroup-could-rename-West-Coast-service-Horizon-Trains.html#)

Don't be so sure.  Company names can be changed in a matter of moments.  Also if you want to set up a company the easiest way to do it is to buy a ready made one from an organisation that specialises in such things and customise it later.  I see no reason why there should not be customised train companies to be bought off the shelf. 

Not sure what First would gain from departing from their usual naming policy.

From reports (of course these are only rumours many of which have proved very inaccuarate so far) the reputational damage from failure would be far less serious that the financial damage.

Actually... it is in America if it can be proved that you've purchased the domain for financial gain or to cause annoyance to an originally owned company.

However, this person isn't in America, the domain wasn't owned before and he may well have a legitimate reason. He might even want to have a coffeeshop forum. I don't see what the fuss is about The Trout, you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

A name is only a name, however business wise a carefully chosen name can make the differance between sucess and failure:

If I was First Group I'd run a competition to ask the public for a trendy training name:

I'd suggest First XXXXXXXXXXX (but that would be telling) ;D

I wonder: can a trout make a mountain out of a molehill?  :P