“Continuation” Cars

[GeorgeG]

I have been doing a bit of digging around the IPR issue. Sorry for the long post, but it casts some light on what is going on here.

The original BRISTOL registered trade marks are currently owned by Kamkorp AutoKraft Limited which in turn appears to be owned by Kamkorp Limited, according to KAL's most recent filed accounts. They are the Bristol badge, BRISTOL FIGHTER, BRISTOL, BRISTOL CARS, the stylised BRISTOL signature, BRISTOL BULLET and the Pegasus badge. Presumably they are part of the IPR package which the liquidators are putting/have put together for sale.

KAL is not in liquidation but its majority shareholder, Kamkorp Limited, is in liquidation. The Siddiqis are still directors of KAL according to Companies House records. To make it even more complicated, the liquidators of Kamkorp Limited may not be the same people as are liquidators of the rest of the Bristol Cars group. Phew! Still with me??

All these KAL trade mark registrations are currently the subject of cancellation proceedings (ie applications to remove the trade marks from the Register) at the UK Trade Marks Registry. These cancellation proceedings were started by Bristol Fighter Limited, one of the companies mentioned in the Car and Classic advertisements

BFL has itself registered BRISTOL FIGHTER, BRISTOL BUCCANEER, BRISTOL CARS, BRISTOL SPEEDSTER (application only at present) and BRISTOL ELECTRIC (application only at present). The current registrations were applied for in February 2020 (around the time of the liquidation of Bristol Cars Limited) so BFL must have been planning its strategy for quite a while. I am not sure how the Registry allowed some of these registrations to get on the Register when the existing equivalent KAL registrations were already there.

Jason Wharton is, I believe, a chartered surveyor, who got involved in 2011 in setting up an Allard continuation car company but I am not aware of this project having gone anywhere since.

It looks to me that "someone" is seriously after the right to use the BRISTOL related trade marks in the future and maybe to exclude others from using the mark BRISTOL in relation to new vehicles and new vehicle parts.