August 2003
Tecwen Moves to Protect Rights in One in a Million Cough
Tecwen Whittock, the former college lecturer convicted for fraud, has prevented pharmaceutical company Transfrontier Ltd of Hendon from marketing a cough sweet called "Tecwen's Relief". Whittock was found guilty of fraud by Southwark Crown Court on 7 April 2003 after assisting Major Charles Ingram to cheat on Who Wants to be a Millionaire by coughing to indicate correct answers.
Transfrontier planned to use the famous cough as a marketing tool for the new medicine and had applied to register the name of the cough sweet as a trademark under the pharmaceutical preparation and substances class. The application also sought to register the strapline "One Answer, One Choice" to market their product.
Once Whittock discovered there had been an application he moved swiftly to register his name in a range of categories including drinks, clothing, games and books to prevent others from registering a similar mark. Transfrontier abandoned their application to register the mark.
**STOP PRESS!**
Reports from major press sources have indicated that the Tecwen Whittock had prevented Transfrontier from pursuing their application to register "Tecwen's Relief". However, Transfrontier have contacted us to state that they abandoned their application after receiving legal advice, before Whittock had moved to register "Tecwen".
Briffa Comment
Attempts to register trademarks of well-known people or characters will generally be refused, as they would be seen as attempts to register in bad faith. For the same reason applications to register marks defensively where there is no intention of using them will usually be refused. When attempting to register a mark, the application must contain a "statement of goods or services" to which the mark will relate.
Celebrity endorsements for products are often sought after by businesses in order to market their products. However, using a celebrity's name or image without their permission can lead to businesses being sued for trademark infringement or under the Common Law for passing off their product as being approved by the celebrity in question.
In order to prevent businesses from using your name to market goods without consent, it is safer to register your name as a trademark rather than relying on the law of passing off. Simply showing unauthorised use of a registered trademark shows infringement, whereas in passing off actions it is necessary to show that the mark had a reputation and that the use of the mark misled the public.