Lotto isn’t a Trademark
Last Updated: Friday 16th January 2015, 10:02
Issues over ownership of a name often come up in the media and in court, it was only this week that McCurry – a small curry company – won a battle against the catering giants McDonalds to use their similar name and while less publicised the National Lottery have also been dealt a blow this week when told that the word lotto isn’t a trademark.
When first launched the National Lottery was known as just that but with the launch of several other draws such as Thunderball and Daily Play by the National Lottery the main draw became known as the UK Lotto in a rebrand a couple fo years ago.
Since then the lottery has tried to prevent people using the ‘Lotto’ name, calling it their own trademark but in a recent court ruling, similar to the one that affected McCurry earlier this week, it was decided that the Lotto trademark is generic and does not belong to the National Lotteries board.
This decision will no doubt open the floodgate to lottery portals such as this one to use the lotto name freely and without fear of reprisals by the court, the decision however will no doubt be a huge blow to the National Lottery who use the Lotto name to sell lottery tickets and market their brand.
Just like the McCurry decision earlier this week, it’s hard to feel sympathy when multi-million companies take on smaller organisations and lose. Although there’s no doubt that this decision is one bit of lottery news that Camelot won’t be keen on hearing.
