Hamilton loses lawsuit against watchmaker

12:47, 21 Nov 2020
5 Comments

Lewis Hamilton has lost a lawsuit against a Swiss watchmaker. The case was about whether or not the trademark 'Hamilton' was being used lawfully.

The court decided that the Swiss company may use the name and also sell watches with the same name. The three-year legal battle was accompanied by a claim by the advisors of the F1 driver's company, 44IP, that the watchmaker Hamilton International had appropriated the trademark "in bad faith" in 2017.

But the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) thought otherwise. It ruled against Hamilton's company by pointing out that the name 'Hamilton International' goes all the way back to 1892, when the manufacturer was established in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The company moved to Switzerland in 2003, when it was taken over.

"Common name"

"The argument relating to the IP rights of the racing driver ‘Lewis Hamilton’ fails," read the EUIPO's verdict. "The contested mark consists solely of one word ‘HAMILTON’, and not ‘LEWIS HAMILTON’. It is a rather common surname in English-speaking countries."There is no ‘natural right’ for a person to have his or her own name registered as a trademark, when that would infringe third parties’ rights."

"Even 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. No 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," the website F1i quotes the judgment of the Court.

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5 Comments
latimer 25 November 2020 at 17:44+ 1

A lot of kneejerk reactions here based out of ignorance. Lewis Hamilton tried to trademark his full name "Lewis Hamilton". He never tried to trademark just "Hamilton" The watch company sued to prevent him trademarking his full name, and then tried to trademark the name "Hamilton" which is their brand name as a way of blocking Lewis of trademarking his full name. Lewis Hamilton then sued stating they were trademarking the name "Hamilton" in bad faith (which they were) and lost the case. The main reason why Hamilton International decided to trademark their name wasn't for any legitimate reason, it was because they heard that Lewis Hamilton was going to come out with a Lewis Hamilton smartwatch and they wanted to force him into a licensing deal for using his own name. Needless to say, they won. And now if Lewis Hamilton wants to use the name "Lewis Hamilton" on a watch, he will have to work out a deal with Hamilton International.

Cinder 21 November 2020 at 16:01+ 3002

Oh, this greedy little guy. Always the same. What's next? Is he going to sue the creators of Hamilton musical? I would say I lost respect for him, but well...

Hekate 21 November 2020 at 16:08+ 21351

Can't lose what you never had in the first place. He probably thinks Hamilton musical is about him, too ? Where did he find the lawyer to pursue such an absurd lawsuit?

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Mech Engineer 21 November 2020 at 13:01+ 55083

Of course, Hamilton is just a generic family names of thousands of people in the world, so how can it be 'copyrighted'? Just because you are pretty well known, sportsman, you want to specify that your sur name cannot be used, especially when the company has already been registered in business since 1892, at a time when lynching was still common in the Southern states in America.

mp599 21 November 2020 at 23:13+ 11881

Hamilton cheerers should realize how their "god" behaves in real life, and how all his moves are money-revenue oriented. This was blatantly a so called frivolous lawsuit, to call media attention on him.