Willow Tea Rooms owner wins trademark dispute

The tea room was previously housed in a building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and is a Glasgow landmark.

Anne Mulhern, 60, who has run the tea room since 1983, said last year she was setting up a new café at the Watt Brothers building.

The old site is undergoing a £10 million restoration after it was bought by the Willow Tea Rooms Trust.

However, following the move, the trust told its lawyers to register “The Willow Tea Rooms” as a trademark for a new business at the site.

Ms Mulhern opposed the move, saying the trust was trying to “hijack” the tourist attraction’s success.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has now found in her favour.

The trust claimed the building in Sauchiehall Steet was called “The Willow Team Rooms” before she opened her business.

Disputing this, however, Ms Mulhern said: “I understand why the trust wished to acquire the building at 217 Sauchiehall Street, given its connections with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

“But there is no reason whatsoever for the trust to be allowed to hijack my trademark The Willow Tea Rooms to give the building a name, nor for it to allege that my trademark, which I have worked long and hard to develop, is somehow associated with the building that houses one branch of my Willow Tea Rooms and not my tea room business.”

Stewart Brown, one of the trustees, told the IPO: “The building at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, has been known as The Willow Tea Rooms since Charles Rennie Mackintosh re-designed it in 1903.

“The goodwill in the name The Willow Tea Rooms is associated with the building itself and not the business carried on there.”

The trust is banned from using the name for any services in the new building and was ordered to pay £870 in legal costs.

A spokesman for the trust said: “We accept the decision but it will not stop the restoration and preservation of one of Glasgow’s most iconic and best loved buildings.

“We will look at other ways of promoting Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Willow Tea Rooms within the building.”

Ms Mulhern said: “After a lengthy legal process we are relieved and delighted about the result. At no point did we ever believe we would lose because The Willow Tea Rooms has been our brand since 1983 and is well known and much-loved throughout the city.

“Now we have secured our rights to the name, we can move on and continue to build our brand.”