Unauthorised Garage Infringed BMW Trade Marks

Brand owners faced with the all too common problem of independent businesses using their marks in a way which suggests a commercial connection or affiliation welcomed a Court of Appeal decision that the use of BMW's registered trade marks by an independent garage on its staff uniform, van and Twitter handle was trade mark infringement and passing off. Each type of use created the impression that the garage's BMW repairing service was affiliated to BMW's network, or that there was a special relationship between them.

The Court drew a key distinction between misleading use and merely informative use. Whilst it would be acceptable for a business to say, for example, "The BMW specialists" or any use which conveyed the message "my business provides a service which repairs BMWs and/or uses genuine BMW spare parts", a message to the effect of "my repairing service is commercially connected with BMW" would amount to a false one. In each case, it will be necessary to consider