Pricess Di Dressmaker Unlikely to Regain Her Name
By zipzipzop
@zipzipzop (418)
China
May 7, 2007 8:18pm CST
Pricess Diana's wedding dressmaker, Elizabath Emanuel, faces a tough fight to win back her trademark-her own name-after anadviser to Europe's highest court ruled that she had no right to it. Emanuel shot to fame after the intense publicity of Pricess Diana's wedding in 1981 and has designed for actress stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins. But when she was on the brink of bankruptcy, Emanuel sold her company, and her trademark. In 2002, she launched a fight to get her name back after the company that bought her trademark started selling clothes under her name. Media reports quoted her as saying she was heartbroken that people thought she had designed the garments. The case went all the way to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court in Luxembourg. Emanuel's lawyers argued that consumers were being deceived by the trademark since they were under the impression that Emanuel was the designer. However, the court's advocate general said she had no right to her name, and the court follows an advocate general's opinion most of the time. In a telephone interview, Emanuel said she was upset by the court's view and would continue her battle. "I am determined to fight this," she said. "I just find it unjust. I can't change who I am, I can't change my name, i will keep making money for him for the rest of my life. I find it deeply upsetting, deeply disturbing."
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1 response
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
8 May 07
While I can see it is not a good situation for her, I don't believe that she could have expected to get the trademark back.
It says quite clearly that she sold the trademark name along with her company, and it would be unreasonable to expect the people who bought the company to change the trademark, the inclusion of a trademark is part of what someone would look at when buying a company.
I don't think she has fully thought it through, no one is asking her to change herself or her name, but maybe she could use a variation e.g. Elizabeth E or her middle name.
A similar situation occured here ages ago and as a result we later had 2 chain stores with similar names - Norman Ross and Harvey Norman.
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