UKIPO office ruling another ‘strike against the Scottish legal profession’

George Joseph Bell

Cloch Solicitors, run by Philip Hannay, had sought to register the word ‘loch’ insofar as it is used for legal services, an application opposed by Loch Employment Law, which had an Edinburgh office between 2016 and 2018 and is part of Loch Associates Group, whose nine applications for trademarks have now been granted, The Herald reports.

UK Intellectual Property Office hearing officer Oliver Morris said “there is no evidence whatsoever that Mr Hannay had, or has, any legitimate interest in the loch trademark”.

And while Cloch’s applications had been filed before those of Loch Associates’, Mr Morris said “the facts clearly show that when Mr Hannay filed the application for the loch mark he knew about [Loch Employment Law’s] expansion under the Loch name to Scotland”.

“I come to the clear view that when Mr Hannay filed the mark he had no intention of using it in trade and that it was filed to give him the upper hand in the dispute, acting as a spoiling mechanism against [Loch Employment Law],” Mr Morris added.

Mr Hannay, who has been ordered to pay £4,400 to Loch Associates, plans to appeal as he believes Mr Morris failed to take account of Scots law.

“In this case we referred to a Scottish institutional writer [Bell] and the barrister on the other side said they didn’t need to take account of that, they just needed to take account of cases,” he said.

“That’s a whole area of Scots law that’s being sidestepped.

“I’m disappointed in the decision and feel it adds to a catalogue [of rulings] that strike against the Scottish legal profession.”

Loch Associates managing director Pam Loch said: “We were disappointed that we were unable to reach an amicable agreement with Mr Hannay before he decided to start proceedings to obtain the loch trademark and we felt we had no choice but to oppose the application given we started trading as Loch Associates over 10 years ago.

“However, we are delighted with the judgment from the IPO which we believe accurately reflects the reality of the situation.”