[gizajob]

Misuse of the word “Hackney”. Hackney has a fairly specific meaning for traditional cabs in London whose human drivers require huge amounts of training in order to be licensed to pick up passengers - the antithesis of everything Uber etc stand for. Pretty sure you can’t use “Hackney Carriage LLC” as a company name either.

A simple google reveals: “A hackney carriage is the formal legal term for a public vehicle for hire, such as a traditional black cab or taxi. Unlike private hire vehicles (minicabs), hackney carriages can be hailed directly off the street or hired from designated ranks.”

[NicuCalcea]

The logo is also strikingly similar to that of the borough of Hackney [0], bar for the mark. If it wasn't for the San Francisco screenshot, my first impression would have been it's a Hackney council thing.

0: https://www.hackneydesignstudio.com/brand-guidelines/logo

[6LLvveMx2koXfwn]

The term has a long, disputed history though, and exported English can morph and grow according to local usage. I was going to post what you posted, but more than a simple Google search led me elsewhere!

[gizajob]

Regardless of specifics or otherwise, the app name is territorialising a domain and naming convention it shouldn’t be, and seeing as the app is available on the UK App Store then it’s certainly a case of “passing off” - a “hackney carriage” certainly is “in the UK, the name hackney carriage today refers to a taxicab licensed by Transport for London, local authority (non-metropolitan district councils, unitary authorities) or the Department of the Environment depending on region of the country“ (Wikipedia).

This app has nothing to do with that licensing of taxi cabs or their history, or comply with the legal foundations of that naming convention. Just because there’s a long history and some dispute, adding to the confusion isn’t going to help, and will be grounds for a huge amount of legal problems if this app gets off the ground, and so is better nipped in the bud sooner rather than later.

[bcjdjsndon]

It's only a problem if he decides to do business in UK... Yanks are free to use it over in yanktonia

[gizajob]

They sure are. Just seems prudent to me to use a name like CompareFare or TaxiMaxi that isn’t likely to trigger the legal weight of the entire UK licensed transport industry if you ever want to expand. The app is on the UK App Store which is likely in breach of all kinds of rules and regulations and legal frameworks concerning licensed transportation right now - it’s not like it’s a cooking app or selling wilderness camping experiences… it’s a taxi app using a very specific usage for taxis in the UK which Uber etc are strictly prohibited from using.