Business Franchise

Refuse firm ‘Lord Of The Bins’ told to change its name by ‘Lord Of The Rings’ franchise

February 7, 2023
Joseph Deering

A refuse collection service in Brighton called ‘Lord Of The Bins’ has been ordered by lawyers to change its name after being accused of being in breach of trademark laws.

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The business was contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, the organisation that owns the rights to The Hobbit and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

In a thread on Twitter, the company revealed the news on February 2. “Lord Of The Bins is unfortunately facing the prospect of having [to] rename and rebrand the company!”, the two man collection firm wrote.” It’s run by Nick Lockwood and Dan Walker who collect household, building and office waste across East Sussex and West Sussex.

They continued: “Middle earth enterprises (Lord Of The Rings franchise) has sent, and is enforcing a cease and desist, claiming we’re in breach of their trademarks.

“They claim customers could confuse that [we’re] endorsed, by or affiliated to Lord Of The Rings...anyone in their right mind know we’re a completely separate and non-competitive business.

“Regardless of what we and our customers think, we now have the prospect of spending thousands of pounds and effort rebranding, to appease a multi billion pound company. We will survive this storm and continue providing a great service for our city, whatever our name. Our last hope is making enough noise to help them see sense. So please share, repost.”

You can see the thread here:

 

As well as being asked to change the firm’s name and website, they say they’ve also been asked to ditch their company slogan, “one ring to remove it all”.

According to reports, the legal letter from Middle Earth-enterprise reads: “You have made use of names and slogan highly similar to the Lord of the Rings. Your activity amounts to an infringement of our client’s trademark rights” (via The Guardian).

Lawyers for the franchise have also allegedly told the businessmen that it reserved the right to “seek damages” over the “unlawful activity”.

Speaking to NME about the support they’d received since news of the lawsuit broke, owner Nick Lockwood said: “The support we have received has been nothing short of astounding. Since the first article [about this] came out yesterday, I have had people up and down the country phoning, emailing, tweeting their support for our cause…it’s actually really heart warming to think people care so much about our small business.

“We’ve had designers offering free redesigns of our logos, solicitors offering free advice, but mainly we’ve been contacted by the most genuine people, offering their support and guidance. We’re overwhelmed! One thing we know 100{194d821e0dc8d10be69d2d4a52551aeafc2dee4011c6c9faa8f16ae7103581f6} now is the British public don’t take bullies lightly and always root for the underdog.”

In an interview with The Sun, joint owner Dan Walker said of Middle-earth Enterprises:  “We can’t afford to fight them. We’re just trying to make people smile and make a living.”

Lockwood added: “If we don’t turn up on time, no one’s going to chuck their Lord of the Rings DVD in the bin. And if they bring out a box office smash, I don’t think more people are going to ring up for waste collection. It’s just bullyboy tactics.”

He added: “We now have the prospect of spending thousands of pounds and [a lot of] effort on rebranding, to appease a multibillion-pound company. We will survive this storm and continue providing a great service for our city, whatever our name.”

NME has approached Middle-earth Enterprises for comment.