Queen serves notice on butler who worked for Charles
THE Queen is taking legal action against Prince Charles’s former butler after he tried to trademark the name The Royal Butler.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the Crown argue the business name along with a golden crest on a website belonging to Grant Harrold, who worked for Prince Charles from 2004 until 2011, are misleading the public into believing he still has a job working for the royal household.
The row comes after the 94-year-old monarch banned Prince Harry and wife Meghan from using the brand Sussex Royal in February as they build a new life together.
Mr Harrold, a regular guest on popular TV shows This Morning and Good Morning Britain, where he hands out etiquette advice, has argued the sitcom The Royle Family was allowed to broadcast unchallenged despite its different spelling.
The former palace staffer also claims a reference, confirming his appointment by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as a royal butler, allows him to use the label.
A royal source said: “The result of this case will be very interesting.
“Mr Harrold has been marketing himself as such for a good few years without an issue. One does wonder whether this
From left: The Queen visits a Red Cross patient in 1951; Kate, whose great-grandmother Olive is pictured above, far right has more to do with the Queen’s grandson and his wife having their wings clipped so a point of order must be made.”
Jamie Muir Wood, acting on behalf of the Queen, said the public would also be misled by Harrold’s pictures of him posing next to a waxwork of Her Majesty at Madame Tussauds and that some would not be able to tell the difference between the model and the real thing.
At an Intellectual Property office hearing on July 21, Mr Muir Wood said: “We say it is possible that members of the public would believe he is educating butlers on behalf of the Queen at his Royal Butler School, that he was appearing in the media as her representative, as a representative of the household of her Royal Family.”
He also dismissed Harrold’s business partner Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, the grand niece of Prince Philip, as not being a proper member of the Royal Family.
Mr Muir Wood further argued no consent was given by the monarch or the Cabinet Office – the only two authorities that can give someone or a business permission to use the term Royal.
Neither Mr Harrold or his legal representative were present at the hearing and the former butler was unavailable for comment.
A decision is expected to made in the next six weeks. be