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  1. Faberge wins From Russia with Love trademark battle

    By Devin Zydel on 2009-07-03

    Fabergé Ltd. has won the rights to sell a ‘From Russia With Love’ jewellery range after a legal battle with Danjaq Ltd, the copyright holders for the James Bond films.

    'From Russia with Love'

    From Russia with Love

    The Telegraph reports that the firm had hoped to use the title of the 1963 Bond film in order to highlight its Russian roots in a new marketing campaign.

    A legal battle followed after the trademark application was challenged by Danjaq, who claimed that shoppers would presume that the jewellery was official 007 merchandise, and said that the application undermined its own From Russia with Love computer games trademark.

    In the end however, like the recent ‘Dr. No’ trademark issue, Bond lost the battle.

    The International Property Office (IPO) ruled that Fabergé can go ahead with its plans in Britain after deciding that the public can tell the difference between film references and official products.

    ‘Being seen as a reference to the film is not the same as the sign representing to the public that the goods are licensed goods,’ said Oliver Morris of the IPO in his adjudication.

    He further ruled that the Fabergé jewellery would not be in direct competition with the branded video games, and said that a range of officially-licensed From Russia with Love Swatch watches were not sufficiently well known in the UK to justify blocking the application.

    ‘In my view the goods for which the mark is said to be well known are not similar to Fabergé’s goods,’ he said. ‘The nature, purposes, methods of use, distribution channels etc. are different and I can see no competitive or complementary relationship.’

    Danjaq was ordered to pay pay Fabergé the sum of £2,300 towards its legal costs.

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