Fabergé wins James Bond battle

[Blowfeld]

Fabergé wins James Bond battle over From Russia With Love rights
Fabergé has won the right to sell a "From Russia With Love" jewellery range, after a legal battle with the James Bond copyright holders.

By Matthew Moore
Published: 7:00AM BST 02 Jul 2009

The firm hoped to use the title of the 1963 Bond film, which starred Sean Connery as 007, to highlight its Russian roots in a new marketing campaign.

But the trademark application was challenged by Danjaq Ltd, which owns the copyright for all the James Bond films.

It claimed that shoppers would presume that the jewellery was official Bond merchandise, and said that the application undermined its own From Russia With Love computer games trademark.

Now the International Property Office (IPO) has 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 also 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 Faberge's goods," he said.

"The nature, purposes, methods of use, distribution channels etc. are different and I can see no competitive or complementary relationship."

Fabergé, which was founded by Gustav Fabergé in St Petersburg in 1842, is famed for creating more than 100 jewel-encrusted eggs for the Russian Tsars. The brand was bought by a Cayman Islands-based investment group in 2007.

Mr Morris also ordered Danjaq to pay Fabergé Ltd the sum of £2,300 towards its legal costs.

This Story can be found at www.telegraph.co.uk/

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

Why don't they do an Octopussy range?