\n<\/p>\n
The owners of James Bond have called the attempt by an Austrian businessman to take control of the superspy\u2019s name across Europe an \u201cunprecedented assault\u201d on the multibillion-pound global franchise.<\/p>\n
In February, the Guardian revealed that a Dubai-based property developer had filed claims in the UK and EU arguing that lack of use meant various protections had lapsed around James Bond\u2019s intellectual property, including his name, his 007 assignation and the catchphrase \u201cBond, James Bond\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nearly all of the nine trademarks being challenged relate to the merchandising of goods and services under the Bond name, which can be challenged after five years of \u201cnon-use\u201d.<\/p>\n
Josef Kleindienst, an Austrian who is building a $5bn (\u00a33.7bn) luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six artificial islands off Dubai, has argued the trademarks have been commercially underexploited.<\/p>\n
Lawyers representing Danjaq, the US-based company which controls the rights to worldwide James Bond merchandising in conjunction with the UK-based production company Eon, have hit back, aiming to vigorously defend the 007 franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cJames Bond is a trademark of the highest reputation in the EU,\u201d said Rudolf B\u00f6ckenholt at Boehmert & Boehmert, one of the largest intellectual property (IP) law firms in Europe, representing Danjaq. \u201cThe trademarks are also licensed for numerous consumer products and merchandise products, ranging from very luxurious products to everyday products, as well as further services.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese goods and the corresponding services are covered by a number of trademarks that have been challenged and attacked by the claimant Josef Kleindienst in an unprecedented assault,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
It has also emerged that Kleindienst has extended his attempt to try to take control of the spy\u2019s various brands by also submitting his own trademark for James Bond in Europe.<\/p>\n
He has not, however, done the same in the UK.<\/p>\n
The European IP law firm Withers & Rogers said this was likely to be because the \u201cintention to use test\u201d that applications were submitted to was more stringently applied by the UK\u2019s Intellectual Property Office than its continental equivalent the EU Intellectual Property Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanjaq would be more likely to object to the registration [in the UK] on the grounds of \u2018bad faith\u2019,\u201d said Mark Caddle, a partner and trademark attorney at Withers & Rogers.<\/p>\n
Danjaq\u2019s lawyers are putting together evidence to prove the trademarks are still being commercialised, while at the same time arguing that Kleindienst\u2019s \u201cnon-use\u201d challenges \u201crepresent abuse of process\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kleindienst was approached for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plot thickens,\u201d Caddle said. \u201cOpting for an \u2018abuse of use\u2019 defence suggests that Danjaq could believe that the cancellation attempt is not legitimate, and specifically, that the challenger may not be intending to use the marks commercially. While it is impossible to say for sure what the challenger\u2019s motives are in this case, the James Bond trademark portfolio and its legacy value does make it an enticing target for opportunists, and further cancellation attempts can\u2019t be ruled out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Daniel Craig\u2019s last outing as 007, No Time to Die, was released in 2021 and with no announcement yet of his replacement or timeline for production of the next film, the franchise is on track to beat the previous longest gap between instalments of six years and four months.<\/p>\n Danjaq also co-owns the copyright to the existing Bond films, along with MGM Studios, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5bn in 2021. Days after the report of Kleindienst\u2019s legal challenges, it emerged that Amazon had paid more than $1bn to gain full \u201ccreative control\u201d of the franchise from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the longtime stewards of the Bond films.<\/p>\n With creative control, Amazon now has the power to move forward with new films and potentially TV spinoffs, without approval from the two British-American heirs to the film producer Albert \u201cCubby\u201d Broccoli, who had overseen the integrity of the character originally created in 1953 by the author Ian Fleming.<\/p>\n In March, Amazon confirmed that Amy Pascal and David Heyman would steer the next Bond film, although no release date or lead actor has yet been named.<\/p>\n Pascal has experience with the Bond series in her previous position as Sony\u2019s chair of film, overseeing Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. She also had producer credits on the latest Spider-Man series.<\/p>\n Heyman is best known as the producer of the Harry Potter films as well as the Fantastic Beasts franchise and is now in pre-production on the HBO TV series adaptation of the stories. He is the second most commercially successful film producer of all time, with credits including Gravity, Paddington, Barbie, Wonka and Once Upon a Time\u2026 in Hollywood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The owners of James Bond have called the attempt by an Austrian businessman to take control of the superspy\u2019s name across Europe an \u201cunprecedented assault\u201d on the multibillion-pound global franchise. In February, the Guardian revealed that a Dubai-based property developer had filed claims in the UK and EU arguing that lack of use meant various<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[360,820,818,821,817,819],"class_list":{"0":"post-9042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-battle","10":"tag-bond","11":"tag-franchise","12":"tag-james","13":"tag-owners"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}