Lashing out at Tiffany’s
TIFFANY is a pretty girl’s name. Its popularity climbed from nowhere in the early 1960s reaching its peak in the late 1980s. It’s a fair guess that many Tiffanys were named by mothers who had swooned over Sunday afternoon telly screenings of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, fancying themselves as Audrey Hepburn in her little black dress, window-shopping at dawn outside Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue with a croissant in a bag and a coffee to go.
Truman Capote’s 1958 novella was turned into that much-loved film by director Blake Edwards in 1961. I don’t think the upmarket jewellery store complained about its name being associated with a white-trash call girl then or since (for that is what Hepburn’s character was). And it must have made millions as a result of the association.
So spare a thought for poor Tiffany Parmar. The beautician filed a trademark application for her cosmetics company called Cotswold Lashes by Tiffany. Personally I’d have suggested a rethink there and then. Cotswold Lashes by Tiffany sounds like a rural spanking dungeon.
Unfortunately Tiffany & Co’s mighty legal team got wind of this modest eyelash extension business and claimed that in using her own name – Tiffany – she would bring its famous brand “into disrepute” and cause “confusion”. Yes, that would be bound to happen
wouldn’t it? Irate customers baffled by the necklaces and pendant counter at the Old Bond Street shop because they thought they’d booked in for one of Tiff’s treatments.
Ms Parmer understandably accuses Tiffany and Co of “bullying”. It’s one of those David and Goliath stories – huge global firm monstering a small, struggling business.
There are many similar stories. Tracy Daly, a Yorkshire pub landlady was threatened with legal action by food bucket giant KFC for using the bland phrase “Family Feast” to advertise her pub’s Christmas menu.
SOME chancers clearly relish the publicity that comes from taking on the big boys. A 17-year-old website wizard called Mike Rowe thumbed his nose at Bill Gates by calling his company MikeRoweSoft. Another young entrepreneur was so fed up with seeing North Face anoraks everywhere that he called his own clothing business South Butt.
Which brings us to Oxford University Press, which has applied to trade mark the word Oxford which means – if it is approved – that makers of maps, tickets, the publisher of the Oxford Mail and hundreds of other Oxford branded goods could be billed or banned. This seems a bit of a cheek for indisputably the town (of Oxford) came before the gown.
OUP says it has submitted the application as a “precautionary state” in response to “ongoing uncertainty around Brexit”. Whatever that means.
So what then of Oxford bags, the Oxford Shirt Company? Will London’s Oxford Circus change its name causing bewilderment to tourists? And, most importantly, what about the “Oxford comma” – a source of joy to grammatical pedants everywhere?