The Guardian
King Charles’s personal shirtmaker. The world’s oldest hatters, who designed fitments for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation crown and boast fans including Winston Churchill. A luxury sports brand with a “spy-ready” ski-suit.
Has James Bond assembled a crack team that can successfully take on his latest adversary?
Lawyers representing Danjaq, the US company that controls the rights to worldwide James Bond merchandising in conjunction with the UK company Eon Productions, have filed evidence running to 227 pages as it battles to retain control of the superspy’s name across Europe.
In February, the Guardian revealed that a Dubai-based property developer had filed claims in the UK and EU arguing that lack of use meant various protections had lapsed around James Bond’s intellectual property, including his name, his 007 assignation and the catchphrase “Bond, James Bond”.
Nearly all nine of the trademarks being challenged relate to the merchandising of goods and services under the Bond name, which can be challenged after five years of “non-use”.
Josef Kleindienst, an Austrian who is building a $5bn (£3.7bn) luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six artificial islands off Dubai, has argued that the trademarks have been commercially underexploited.
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