Norfolk-based business wins legal fight against luxury brand Louis Vuitton
The fashion house said people could get their names mixed up
A Norfolk-based garden accessories business has won its legal battle with international fashion house Louis Vuitton, which had claimed that their firm's name of L V Bespoke could cause "consumer confusion".
Married couple Lawrence and Victoria Osborne, who live in Reepham, used their initials to found L V Bespoke in 2020 when lockdowns hit their incomes from installing kitchens in people's homes and from holiday lets.
The keen gardeners spotted an opportunity when struggling to find steel supports for plants, and now sell items such as obelisks that house roses, as well as gnomes and bespoke creations.
They were last year commissioned by the King's Sandringham Estate to make metal crowns for the topiary lawn by the house, which Mrs Osborne said was a "massive thing for us".
Mrs Osborne, 48, said she and her 42-year-old husband run the small firm from a workshop at their home, and employ two to five staff on a seasonal basis.
They tried to register L V Bespoke as a trademark just over two years ago, for goods such as metal plant cages and plants.
"A couple of days before we routinely would have been confirmed with our trademark registration, up popped this fancy London legal company on behalf of Louis Vuitton and I honestly thought it was a joke," said Mrs Osborne.
The fashion giant, founded in France in 1854, claimed there was a "likelihood of consumer confusion" and that L V Bespoke would "take unfair advantage of, or would be detrimental to" their earlier trademarks, according to papers following a UK Intellectual Property Office hearing.
"We shouldn't be subjected to corporate bullying"
Mrs Osborne said they decided to fight the objection to their trademark application rather than change the name of the business.
"I could just see the wrong in all of it and the fact we shouldn't be subjected to corporate bullying," she said.
"The fact of the matter is they were so polar opposites and it was surreal to think they would compare the metalwork on their handbags to the metalwork that we produce."
Hearing officer Matthew Williams said in his written ruling that "almost all" of L V Bespoke's goods, such as metal plant cages and garden stakes, were "self-evidently dissimilar" to Louis Vuitton's "metal components for leatherware".
"The only point of commonality is the presence of the same two single letters L and V," he said.
He found that Louis Vuitton's objection to the trademark registration application "failed on all grounds" and that the "average consumer... would not mistake the marks for one another; there will be no direct confusion".
He ordered that Louis Vuitton pay £4,000 to Mr and Mrs Osborne.
Louis Vuitton has a right to appeal against the outcome, issued on Tuesday.
"Common sense has prevailed"
Mrs Osborne said it had been a "stressful time" but "thankfully common sense has prevailed".
She said that fighting the case had cost them "about £15,000" but there had also been "emotional stress and anxiety".
"What we can't put a measure on is for this just-over-two-year period we haven't been able to grow our business in the way that we had intended to with our business plan due to the fact we had this hanging over our head, and the anxiety of having to perhaps rename and rebrand," she said.
"Anything that we had put into our marketing side of things in our growth plan could have been an additional expense that would have been wasted as well.
"For two years we've had the handbrake on."
Mrs Osborne, who has three children Mac, 19, Lucas, 16 and Lochlan, eight, said she hopes "growth, growth, growth" will follow for the business.
Louis Vuitton has been approached for comment.