Jaguar cars climb down over Shoreditch bar battle
Nick Letchford outside Jaguar Shoes - Credit: Archant
Car giant Jaguar has backed down from the David and Goliath legal battle it launched over the popular Shoreditch café, bar and art gallery, Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, which shares its name.
The car manufacturer began the legal dispute two years ago with Jaguar Shoes Dream Bags, which has been frequented by the likes of stars like Natalie Portman and Beyonce.
This week the founders, brother and sister Nick Letchford and Teresa Skragatic, announced that Jaguar had withdrawn its opposition to the trademark of the venue they set up in Kingsland Road 12 years ago when they knocked together a former bag store and shoe shop whose name came from the vintage signage outside that they retained.
It was only two years ago when their name was plagiarised that they sought to protect it with a trademark that car company Jaguar Land Rover stepped in to object to the use of the word “Jaguar”.
Ever since lawyers from both sides have been trying to negotiate a deal.
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Mr Letchford said it was an enormous relief to have laid the matter to rest: “It cost us legal fees, but at the same time we are massively relieved to just move on and feel like we can continue to build equity into the brand.
“At the end of the day we are doing nice positive community and arts based things, we like doing it under the mantle of Jaguar Shoes and it’s lovely knowing we can continue to do that and not worry that we have to embark on a rebranding exercise.
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“Or more importantly that no one else can now piggy back on our hard work and be powerless to do anything about it, which would have been the case had we not been able to get the trademark.”
He said it was lovely to see just how many people rallied behind the bar.
An online petition was signed by over 1,000 people who testified they had “never experienced any confusion between the restaurant bar and gallery brand Jaguar Shoes and Jaguar who make cars”.
A spokesman for Jaguar Cars confirmed the matter has now been resolved, but could not comment any further on the matter due to a confidentiality clause.
