LEGO forces UK business to change its name from, erm, Lego
In possibly the most bizarre story you’ll read today, the LEGO Group has forced a UK financial intermediary to change its business name from… Lego.
According to the UK’s Companies House portal, David Simpson registered the company name Lego Market Group Ltd on September 10, 2021. The business is based on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, and is listed as a financial intermediary – so clearly has very little to do with interlocking plastic bricks.
The LEGO Group understandably took issue with the company’s moniker, however, and in February this year filed an application to change its name under the Companies Act 2006. Section 69 of that act states that a person may object to a company’s name if its use in the UK would be ‘likely to mislead by suggesting a connection between the company and the applicant’.
Calling your new company ‘Lego Market Group Ltd’ definitely feels like the kind of thing that would connect you to, you know, actual LEGO – whether intentionally or not. Simpson was apparently unreachable by mail and provided no comment, objection or defence to the application, and so earlier this month an adjudicator ruled that he must change his company’s registered name.
He’s been given one month to do so, and must also pay £800 to the LEGO Group in costs. If he doesn’t change the business’s name within the required timeframe, the adjudicator will come up with a name for him. There’s a lesson in here for all of us: before you set up a new company, make sure your chosen name isn’t already taken.
And, more importantly, make sure it isn’t taken by one of the biggest brands on the planet.
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Why would anyone think they could get away with that? Of COURSE LEGO would object to a company that sounds like it’s a financial branch of their own company. It’s one thing when it’s like “Lego Powerwashing and Gardening Service” but why would you name your marketing company Lego??