Geographical Names – Possible Trademark Registration?

Facts: A local dentists business was trading under the name of its local village, lets call it ‘Greenhithe Dentists’. The practice had been going 30 years and had a huge following. In fact, people came from 30 miles away and had been doing for some years. The problem was that other local dentists were using the name ‘Greenhithe Dentists’ and ‘AAA Greenhithe Dentists’ to obtain business through local Yellow Pages Advertising and also by using Greenhithe Dentists as part of their domain names on the net. There is a general principle that ‘geographical marks’ cannot be registered. This is not always right. We succeeded in getting this trademark registered with the result that no-one else can use Greenhithe Dentists in their advertising or in their url addresses. We have had success in registering a number of geographical trademarks and we are considered rather expert in this area (*blush*).