Lewis Hamilton loses legal battle with Hamilton watches
Lewis Hamilton has lost his legal battle to block Hamilton International, a luxury Swiss watchmaker, from trademarking the name โHamiltonโ.
The Formula 1 driver claimed the watch manufacturerโs trademark prevented โfair competitionโ and attempted to prevent the company from registering its brand in Europe.
The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) threw out his case as they said he had no โnatural rightโ to the name, which the watchmaker has been using since the 19th Century.
In its ruling, the EUIPO said: โThe argument relating to the IP rights of the racing driver โLewis Hamiltonโ fails. ‘The contested mark consists solely of one word โHAMILTONโ, and not โLEWIS HAMILTONโ. It is a rather common surname in English-speaking countries.
โThere is no โnatural rightโ for a person to have his or her own name registered as a trademark, when that would infringe third parties’ rights.โ
It added: โEven the cancellation applicant explicitly accepted that the contested mark ‘HAMILTON’ had been used since 1892, i.e. even before the date of birth of “Lewis Hamilton” as a natural person.
โNo bad faith can be found on the part of the EU trademark proprietor. In fact, the EU trademark proprietor demonstrated a significant economic activity in the horological field since 1892.โ