Doom Patrol wrote:If he did cancel his registration of the name would that mean that the LCGB no longer has a case?
Interesting question. This situation is far more complicated than it appears from the outset. There are actually a huge number of permutations of how this could play out.
Best I can see from the outside, Gav took a step toward registering the name BLOA as a trademark. Once the first step of the paperwork was in place, he went about setting up the club and associated merchandise etc.
The LCGB were not happy, and took legal advice on preparing the opposition to the trademark and telling Gav not to use this name BLOA.
So far this all appears to have been at IPO level and a single letter to Gav. No court action has been taken at this point, so you have to assume, that in order to gain back any legal funds spent, which are not associated with a court case, I can only imagine the LCGB would have to actually start a whole new legal line of action, to separately sue for costs/damages which specifically relate to the IPO/trademark issue. Now IF they intended to do that, they may have a better chance if the IPO ruling went in their favour. But if it didn’t, I’d consider all legal fees did to date as pretty much unrecoverable. And even if the ruling did go in their favour, they would have to prove that they tried all reasonable avenues of mediation and negotiation before they started legal action, and even then, there will be limits to what the court considers a fair amount. So again, the IPO legal fees to date, may be money gone, never to be seen again.
After all that, and with or without the IPO final ruling to the opposition. The LCGB could start independent action against GF, completely separately from the IPO issue. Given their recent statement on the chit-chat section of the LCGB forum, I would be surprised if we heard more on that very soon. But this is a whole new set of legal fees, separate to the IPO situation, and court costs can be applied for, if they win. But again...a fair amount, backed up with evidence of proper negotiation taking place.
My own non-professional opinion of the convoluted legality surrounding this whole thing, is that it’s going to be very costly. No matter what. Solicitors abs Barristers get paid to interpret the law. Those interpretation may or may not have merit in the eyes of the judge. I’ve yet to meet a legal professional who didn’t think they ‘had a case to argue’...that’s what they bill you for, collating evidence, setting out a position, making an argument. No matter how clear cut the morality issue for some, the legal issue is far from simple, and definitely not cheap, almost certainly not recoverable.
If Gav changed his club name, logo and merchandise to something agreeable to the LCGB...and gave up the BLOA trademark, then yes...it probably would mean the LCGB no longer had a case to pursue in that respect. They may still want to spend more money to try and sue for costs though? But like paying the next ante to try and win your money back when gambling.
Short of the IPO ruling in the LCGBs favour, them winning a case for costs, and GF ceasing all activity...I don’t see the LCGB winning anything here.
On the other side, short of the LCGB ceasing all IPO opposition, legal action, and 5000 people joining BLOA...I don’t see GF winning anything here either.
Essentially there are no winners...except the barristers.
...I have also not discussed any of this with GF. What I do know a lot about is negotiating. It is quite the obvious thing to find a mediator that’s well respected such as Kev Walsh rather than someone on the committee who’s is not known and may have biased views.