Shorts International v Google: YouTube Shorts does not infringe ShortsTV trademarks

What happened

Shorts International Ltd (SIL) runs the ShortsTV short-film channel and owns UK trademarks combining the word "shorts" with a stylised play-symbol logo. It sued Google over YouTube's "Shorts" short-form video feature, claiming trademark infringement and passing off, where one business claims another has used a similar name or logo in a way that misleads customers about who they're dealing with. Google argued "shorts" simply described short-form content and counterclaimed that SIL's marks were invalid or ought to be cancelled for lack of use. The trial judge sided largely with Google. SIL appealed on infringement and the validity of its marks.

What did the court decide in Shorts International v Google?

The Court of Appeal dismissed SIL's appeal entirely. It held the average consumer would understand "shorts" to mean short-form audiovisual content generally, not just short films, so Google's use of the word was descriptive rather than an attempt to copy SIL's branding. It was legitimate for the trial judge to factor in that descriptiveness when comparing the marks, rather than this being unfair "double counting". Because Google's signs didn't include the play-symbol-in-the-O design that gave SIL's marks their limited distinctiveness, there was no likelihood of confusion. SIL's evidence of UK reputation was also too thin to support a claim based on unfair advantage or damage to reputation. The word-only SHORTSTV mark was rightly found invalid as purely descriptive, and a proposed amendment to narrow its specification was refused as neither clear enough nor far-reaching enough to fix the problem. Google's cross-appeal didn't need deciding, since it only applied if SIL had won.

What we learned from this

• What I'd take from this is that owning a trademark containing a common, descriptive word doesn't give you control over that word. Here, the logo elements were doing almost all the protective work, and once a competitor dropped those elements, there was little left to object to.
• If part of your name or logo describes what you do (like 'shorts' for short videos), expect any trademark protection around it to be narrow and focused on the distinctive extras, not the word itself.
• Word-only registrations of descriptive compound terms are vulnerable to being struck out as invalid, so it's worth thinking about whether a logo or stylised version gives more durable protection.
• Trying to rescue a weak registration by narrowing its specification after the event is unlikely to work if the limitation isn't clear or doesn't go far enough to fix the underlying problem.

Things to be aware of

The businesses involved

What happened next

• Reuters reported that Google had already defeated the original High Court claim over the YouTube Shorts name, a ruling SIL then took to the Court of Appeal.Source: Reuters, November 2024
• The Supreme Court's case list shows Shorts International subsequently sought to appeal further, naming Google as respondent in a pending application.Source: UK Supreme Court, October 2026
• Shoosmiths said the Court of Appeal's decision underlines the limits of trademark protection available for descriptive terms like 'shorts'.Source: Shoosmiths, June 2026
• Browne Jacobson said the ruling would assist future defendants resisting UK infringement claims based on marks with only modest distinctiveness.Source: Brownejacobson, June 2026

What others said about it

• LexisNexis summarised the outcome as 'shorts' descriptive, no infringement or passing off, and SHORTSTV invalid, framing the result as a narrow win for Google.Source: LexisNexis, July 2026
• NIPC Law noted the appeal challenged the trial judge's reasoning on descriptiveness and the comparison of marks and signs, which the Court of Appeal upheld in full.Source: NIPC Law, May 2026
• Blake Morgan asked whether commonly used descriptive words like 'shorts' can ever be adequately protected, concluding this ruling shows such protection is limited.Source: Blake Morgan, July 2026