Little minnow bites back shark !
Discussion
About a year ago a VERY large PLC (you will have heard of) started legally pursuing my company, with all sorts of threats! For the purpose of this post we'll call the company "Bully Unlimited" (BU)!
The issue was that on some of our literature we had pictures of, let's say, some natural occurring gas passing through a liquid. It's the sort of image you might see on, say, the label of a bottle of fizzy mineral water. BU used this image on their advertising and packaging (as does, I guess, about 10,000 other companies in the UK)! Anyway, BU were relentless in their pursuit of my company - I suspect that they employed about two dozen lawyers who had sod all else to do! As such, BU wouldn't concede and kept raising the stakes. What they didn't bank on was the fact that I wasn’t going to be bullied - regardless of the size difference, and that I have deep pockets in relation to such things. Anyway, after much fighting they've now conceded defeat, because it was clear:
1) We were not trying to "pass off" as them - we're in completely different sectors.
2) It is a "naturally occurring" picture that has been widely used long before BU even existed, and it's deemed unreasonable that any corporation could claim ownership of it.
But here's the bit I really like, they've been forced to agree that if they ever become involved in the same sector as us then they are forbidden from using their corporate image within our sector. As such, Chelsea 0 – Accrington Stanley 1.
It's moments like this that make it all worthwhile!
>> Edited by srebbe64 on Saturday 14th January 16:04
The issue was that on some of our literature we had pictures of, let's say, some natural occurring gas passing through a liquid. It's the sort of image you might see on, say, the label of a bottle of fizzy mineral water. BU used this image on their advertising and packaging (as does, I guess, about 10,000 other companies in the UK)! Anyway, BU were relentless in their pursuit of my company - I suspect that they employed about two dozen lawyers who had sod all else to do! As such, BU wouldn't concede and kept raising the stakes. What they didn't bank on was the fact that I wasn’t going to be bullied - regardless of the size difference, and that I have deep pockets in relation to such things. Anyway, after much fighting they've now conceded defeat, because it was clear:
1) We were not trying to "pass off" as them - we're in completely different sectors.
2) It is a "naturally occurring" picture that has been widely used long before BU even existed, and it's deemed unreasonable that any corporation could claim ownership of it.
But here's the bit I really like, they've been forced to agree that if they ever become involved in the same sector as us then they are forbidden from using their corporate image within our sector. As such, Chelsea 0 – Accrington Stanley 1.
It's moments like this that make it all worthwhile!
>> Edited by srebbe64 on Saturday 14th January 16:04
anonymous said:
[redacted]
We agreed to 'drop-hands', provided they committed to not using their logo in my sector. I was okay with this because the law firm we used are one of our panel lawyers who we recommend our contact to use. As such, I didn't need to pay them a damn penny, I just made sure that I referred a few monre contacts their direction!! Regarding whether it was on an "indemnity basis", I haven't got a damn clue, but the lawyer reckons it was an excellent result! Once I've got my head round the details I'll post them.
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