SPANISH LAWYER TAKES A GOOD NAME FOR HIMSELF

Today’s Legal Week magazine reports that Lovells is suing Manuel Rayo, a Spanish lawyer who registered the name ‘Lovell’ in Spain. Lovells filed its claim in Madrid on 27 February, to assert its prior rights to the name. Rayo, who purports to operate a Spanish law firm called Lovell Abogados, is allegedly seeking compensation from Lovells, complaining that the names are too similar.



The UK firm, which says it has used the name since 1899, accuses the Spanish lawyer of acting in bad faith. There is no lawyer called Lovell at Lovell Abogados. Lovells’ name has been registered as a Community trade mark in all European Union member states since 2000 (not 1999, as the article claims), while Rayo filed the name Lovell in Spain in the same year. Lovells has operated under the Lovells name in Spain since it merged with German’s Boesebeck Droste in 2000, when it acquired that firm’s Alicante office.



The IPKat observes that neither Manuel Rayo nor Lovell Abogados appear to have any presence on the internet. If any reader knows how he or his firm can be contacted, the IPKat would dearly like to find out so that he can ask him some searching questions about his choice of trade name. Is it perhaps because Lovells is a good name and Manuel Rayo is a bad one?



Lovells’ advice on protecting trade marks here

Name stealing here, here and here