Interesting one for you — and yes, I’m a bit hacked off, but also taking the lesson. A couple of years ago, when I decided to start an AI agency, I came up with what felt like a strong name: “Agentics”. Like most people, I checked domains first. No point building a brand and a business if the domain name isn’t available. As you’d expect: .ai (£113k), .com (£75k), .net (£15k), and .co.uk (undisclosed price) were all for sale. But .uk wasn’t. It was available. So I registered agentics.uk for £8 and got on with building a business. Fast forward to now — I’ve been trading under that name for nearly two years, helping SMEs with AI, automation, and agentic systems. Then today I received a formal “letter before action”. Another UK company has a registered trademark for a very similar sounding name and operates in a related space. Their position is: – the names are phonetically identical – our services overlap – therefore there is a likelihood of confusion I have seven days to comply with their demands, including: – immediately ceasing use of the name “Agentics” – removing branding and content across my website and social platforms – and executing a binding undertaking to transfer the domain agentics.uk Yes — that last one raised an eyebrow. A few reflections: 1. Naming in AI is a minefield We’re all converging on similar language — agents, agentic, automation — and what feels obvious can quickly overlap. 2. Domain ≠ brand Owning a domain doesn’t necessarily mean you’re safe to build a business under that name. 3. This gets real faster than you think It’s easy to ignore legal structure early on — until it shows up properly. My approach now: – stop using the name commercially – keep things clean and professional – move forward under my personal PAFoster.com brand No drama — just part of building something real. Has anyone else run into trademark issues in this space?