The full might of the X Factor and Simon Cowell’s television company have come crashing down on a small jewellery company which made an application to register the words ‘Little Mix’ as a trade mark for a range of bracelet charms.
Simco Limited called in a team of top intellectual property lawyers after it learnt that the company, SGI Jewellery Limited (SGI), had applied to register the name of the phenomenally successful girl band in respect of jewellery products.
SGI’s director insisted that she had come up with the name for her 'mix' of 'little' charms long before 'Little Mix' triumphed in the 2011 X Factor final and embarked on a career which has yielded millions in record sales.
However, a hearing officer appointed by the Registrar of Trade Marks found that the director had taken the name from the band – and had even resorted to forgery and 'concocting' documents in a bid to profit from the group’s reputation.
The director had argued that she chose the title for the charm collection because they were 'little and a mixture of different things'. She insisted that she came up with the name ‘in the early summer of 2011’, months before the girl band made its first appearance on the X Factor later that year.
However, Simco argued that she had had applied for the trade mark 'in bad faith' and had 'forged letters from alleged business associates' to support her bogus claim that she had come up with the 'Little Mix' name first.
Refusing SGI’s application, the hearing officer noted that shared misspellings and 'odd and identical choices of words' in the letters suggested that they were by the same author. He added, "This leads me to conclude that, in all likelihood, these letters are not genuine and have been provided to give the false impression that SGI had had business dealings regarding the mark Little Mix before the band of the same name featured on the X Factor."
The official concluded, "The impression created is that SGI did not choose the mark in the early summer of 2011 but much closer to the filing date and in response to the band Little Mix achieving success on the television show…the evidence in this case is certainly not consistent with good faith and points to SGI filing the application with the sole purpose of benefitting from the success of the band Little Mix on the X Factor. To do so is not acceptable commercial behaviour.
"At the time the application was filed, SGI was aware of the band Little Mix and its efforts to illustrate that it had, in fact come up with the name the year before is not credible in the light of the flaws in the evidence. Having regard for all of this, I conclude that the application was made in bad faith."