Blackletter

Tiger Lily Ventures, a British company was seeking to name their whiskey Lehman Brothers. The trademark lapsed in the U.S. Register. The Barclays failed to renew the trademark in 2013 and Tiger Lily jumped on top of that and filed a trademark for whiskey and beer using the Lehman Brothers name. The argument that Barclay's made about the marks was a) they own the marks, b) the marks are famous and c) clearly if Tiger Lily uses the marks for whiskey, even though it's not the same goods and services as Lehman Brothers Financial Services or Barclays Financial Services, people are going to make some association back to the original owner of the mark, in this case, Barclays, and it would result therefore in dilution of the distinctive quality of Barclay's mark. Further, the Tiger Lily's mark falsely alludes to a connection between Barclay's predecessor in interest Lehman Brothers.  Despite Tiger Lily's defense that Lehman let the mark lapse, all trademark rights derived from use in commerce and common law rights a