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Bentley Motors Loses Trademark Battle With Bentley Clothing

Bentley is a name that is synonymous with automobiles if you are a petrolhead. That does not apply to everyone, as there’s also a clothing company that has nothing to do with the carmaker.
The winged-B logo of Bentley motors on a Mulsanne 6 photos
Photo: Bentley
Bentley Clothing Company's productBentley Clothing Company's logo in a commercialA shirt made by Bentley Motors. Observe the logoA duffel bag sold by Bentley Motors. Observe the logoAnother version of the Bentley Motors logo
Bentley Motors has reportedly lost a legal battle started with the apparel maker over the use of registered trademarks for clothing products. As you can imagine, there was no confusion between the two brands when one was selling clothes and another was marketing cars, but things became complicated when Bentley Motors decided to offer apparel.

Since you already know about the automaker, the clothing manufacturer with the Bentley name was established in London back in 1962, and it is currently a father-and-son business, owned by Bob and Christopher Lees.

The two firms have been fighting in courts about their names even before Bentley Motors launched a clothing line in 2005. When the automaker wanted to expand its apparel business, it started a lawsuit against the clothing company, which defended itself in front of the Intellectual Property Office.

The legal representatives of the automaker claimed that Bentley Clothing was trading on the reputation of the former, while the defendants explained that the name they shared is not that powerful in this line of business. As Financial Times reports, the UK Intellectual Property Office decided for Bentley Clothing in this case.

Bentley Motors will continue to offer accessories, and Bentley Clothing will live on as a separate company, as it did before the lawsuit.

An easy way to distinguish their products would be the logo: the automaker has a “B” with wings, while the clothing brand has a crown on top of the same letter, a different font, and a circle of laurels around it.

If you ask us, a true connoisseur will have no trouble in differentiating the two brands, especially since they have different logos. It is confusing that both companies are British, but their years of establishment (1919 for Bentley Motors) should help in figuring out which is which, if the logos did not help.

Regardless, if you cannot read Bentley Motors anywhere on the apparel product, there’s a big chance the automaker's division does not make the item.

On a more amusing note, can you imagine what knockoff artists would do to these two brands?
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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