Entain Pushes for Trademark Ban on Unregulated Firms in the UK

Entain has urged the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to tighten its trademark rules after discovering that several gambling operators without a licence had still managed to secure UK trademark registrations.

The company said it reviewed 18 brands believed to be serving UK customers without approval from the Gambling Commission and found that 14 had no licence but still held UK trademarks.

Entain’s letter also pointed to specific examples, including brands with alleged Russian links, that had managed to secure UK trademarks despite lacking a licence.

Simon Zinger, Entain’s group general counsel and chief customer care officer, warned that the current system gives unlicensed operators a form of legitimacy. He wrote to the IPO chief executive and comptroller-general Adam Williams, stating,

“The UK trade mark register is currently accessible to operators providing gambling services to UK consumers without a Gambling Commission operating licence.”

“Operating gambling facilities in Great Britain without a licence is a criminal offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005. Despite this, entities committing that offence can nonetheless register UK trade marks, acquire the commercial legitimacy that registration confers, and use the UK’s trade mark registration system to sustain operations that Parliament has expressly prohibited.”

Entain proposes reforms

Entain has laid out several ideas to close the gap between gambling regulation and trademark law. One suggestion was to explore whether existing public policy provisions could be applied to trademark applicants whose business activities would be illegal under the Gambling Act.

Another proposal was to require gambling operators to show proof of a valid Gambling Commission licence before being allowed to register a trademark.

Simon Zinger explained the reasoning behind these calls, saying: “The UK’s intellectual property system is rightly regarded as one of the best in the world. It would be a significant anomaly if that system continued, inadvertently, to extend its protections to operators who have placed themselves outside the law that governs the sector in which they operate.”

The IPO responded on 2 June, confirming that Entain’s concerns had been passed to the team responsible for trademark policy and that a meeting would be arranged to discuss the matter further.

At the same time, IPO chief Adam Williams pointed out limits in the current framework. He noted that objections can only be raised if there is an issue with the mark itself, not with the applicant’s conduct or how the mark is used.

Williams also stressed that there is no trademark approval system comparable to the restrictions applied by Companies House on certain company names.

He added that sanctions already apply to intellectual property rights in the UK, including those linked to Russia. “The IPO has moved quickly to implement sanctions which we are enforcing robustly. The IPO does not accept fees or provide associated services to those on the UK sanctions list, either directly or through their agents,” Williams said.

Source: NEXT.io

Entain Pushes for Trademark Ban on Unregulated Firms in the UK

Entain proposes reforms

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