A S TATEMENT F ROM T HE COMMITTEE – L CGB

Why is the Lambretta Club of Great Britain going to such great lengths to defend the name, logo and historic designs of the British Lambretta Owners Association (BLOA) and stop it from being used by someone else?

Put simply, we are trying to protect part of the history of the LCGB itself. That’s not unusual: as any scooter owner will know, “history” matters in all sorts of ways. It may be about the age and provenance of a scooter itself. It is also about common memories and experiences, of riding to rallies and other events, of laughs with your mates, of breakdowns and triumphs. It could be about the history of your own scooter club. It’s all part of our shared history and tradition as scooterists. The LCGB is about that same shared passion and experience. With over 5000 members, we are the world’s largest Lambretta Club. Our Club is run by genuine scooter enthusiasts who volunteer their services – entirely on an unpaid basis – and are accountable to all members at our annual general meetings. The Club has no owner or director taking any profits or dividends. All revenue is reinvested in the Club for its members. We are proud of our history, which goes back to 1953 when Club Lambretta Great Britain was first founded, soon to be renamed British Lambretta Owners Association (BLOA) by Lambretta Concessionaires. BLOA’s aim was to promote the Lambretta brand and run events for Club members. In much the same way as the LCGB today, it supported regional, national and international events as well as securing benefits such as insurance discounts for its members. The BLOA ‘Blue Shield’ logo was designed by the late Mike Karslake, a well-known Lambretta enthusiast, and one of the first members of Club Lambretta Great Britain.

In 1964 Lambretta Concessionaires formed a Club within a Club, advertised as a new “Fast Lane” for members with a sporting outlook. The Lambretta Club Great Britain (almost a return to our original name) was formed. BLOA was still the controlling body. Mike Karslake, along with other dedicated LCGB members, helped preserve the marque in this country through the lean years of the 1970s, until it was revived by members of the Widnes Saints SC, including Kev Walsh and John Illing. Mike always retained complete copyright over the BLOA logo and designs. In 1983, shortly after the LCGB was revived, he assigned this copyright to our Club, making it clear – in writing – that it could only be used by ourselves or with our permission. We still have the letter, now a formal legal document, in our possession. Sadly, Mike passed away in 1990. For more than 35 years we have kept faith with his wishes, regularly using the BLOA logo at LCGB events to denote our historical roots and on Club merchandise, reflecting this enduring link between BLOA and the LCGB.

Imagine our shock, therefore, when we discovered last year that someone had gone to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and was attempting to register the BLOA name and designs as if they belonged to them. Moreover, he was making use of those designs to create his own merchandise which he sells on the internet and elsewhere. He even set up a club with the same name. The excuse seems to be that as we were not making full use of the BLOA name and logo ourselves, which was completely untrue, he was entitled to do so himself – a bit like someone marching into your back garden and pitching a tent in it because he’s decided you aren’t using it often enough. Since then, the same individual has slightly altered the name of his organisation to avoid suggestions of copyright theft – while still retaining almost every other element of Mike Karslake’s original BLOA design: the shield, the colours, the typeface, layout and font. It’s called “passing off” – and it is a breach of the law. Legal advice we have obtained says that if we initiate court action we would win. Everything is primed to go. So far, we tried to avoid this course of action, hoping the individual concerned will see reason. After all, our members’ money should be used to promote scootering activities, not to make lawyers rich because of one man’s blind ambition.

We have also tried to mobilise public opinion: more than 100 affiliated scooter clubs and organisations in the scooter scene, nationally and internationally, are publicly backing us – for which we are grateful. Ultimately, however, our Club also believes that no-one has the right to take what is morally or legally ours and use it for their own commercial ends. Many members and elected officials have worked hard since 1953 to build a trusted and nationally-respected members’ Club. The BLOA years played a massive part in that and will forever be part of our Club’s heritage. At our LCGB Annual General Meeting this year, hundreds of members present unanimously backed this stance and supported the committee’s efforts to assert the LCGB’s right over the BLOA name and design. Many more have contacted us since then to offer their support and, in some cases, financial backing.

We have proved in our own magazine ‘JetSet’ and on our Club forum that we have proudly used and carried on the BLOA name, brand and imagery over many years. BLOA is part of the LCGB’s heritage and tradition – we will be steadfast in protecting it.