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South African company wins virgin trademark fight

4 Feb 2010

Dimitri Philippou's company, Bodtrade 54, applied to register as a trademark the phrase, ‘You can't be a virgin all your life it's time...', but Richard Branson's Virgin Enterprises opposed the registration. Philippou argued that the word virgin was part of the generally used English language; the United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) agreed with the argument and granted the SA company the right to include the magic words ‘registered trademark' along with the phrase.

The IPO's Allan James who gave Virgin Enterprises until the end of August 2009 to appeal made the ruling in July 2009. The business giant did not and Bodtrade 54's trademark was registered on 25 September 2009. James furthermore ordered Virgin Enterprises to pay UK £1500 (about R15 000) towards Bodtrade 54's legal costs, which, according to Philippou, has been settled.

This published ruling opens the way for other companies to register trademarks that include the word ‘virgin', even regarding those products or services, which Virgin Enterprises provides. Bodtrade 54 has subsequent to this ruling, filed for further trademarks in UK covering: Education and Entertainment, Medical and Beverages on 18 January 2009.

Philippou believes there is considerable power in the phrase for marketing purposes. “After all, you can't be a virgin all your life it's time…for Bodtrade Hotels or Bodtrade Telecoms - and you can add words and replace Bodtrade with any name you like and therein lies its power,” says Philippou.

It is the first time in the history of Virgin Enterprises Limited that a company other than a company of the Virgin Enterprises group of companies has secured a trademark registration including the word ‘virgin' apart from some marks registered for olive oil in which the word is descriptive.