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11 August 2014Trademarks

Bear Grylls ‘pulls out’ of bear blades dispute

UK TV host Bear Grylls has leapt to the defence of a UK company that was targeted by his lawyers for using the word ‘Bear’ for its range of knives.

Bear Blades, a Dorset-based company, received a letter from law firm Carpmaels & Ransford LLP calling for its name to be changed because it bore similarity to the presenter’s name and saying that its client was “very concerned”.

But Grylls, who hosts survival programmes including ‘Born Survivor’ and the soon-to-be-aired ‘Running Wild’, took to social networking site Twitter to offer his support to the company.

Grylls said he did not know the law firm had demanded the name change and said they would sort it out as “best we can”.

He later added “you guys are good to go, apologies again”.

Bear Blades initially contacted the star—who has more than one million followers—on August 8 to tell him it was being forced to change its name.

The law-firm and Bear Grylls Ventures, the presenter’s merchandising company, did not respond to a request for comment on whether the dispute had ended.

In the original letter, dated July 25, Carpmaels & Ransford said the name was very similar to the Bear Grylls trademark and covered identical and similar goods.

It also said its client [Grylls] was “very concerned” with the attempt to register a trademark.

"We act on behalf of Bear Grylls Ventures LLP, which is the merchandising company associated with the world renowned adventurer, writer and television presenter Bear Grylls,” it said.

"Our client is very concerned about your application to register the Bear Blades Steel, Strength, Utility, and logo mark, the dominant and distinctive element of which is the word 'bear'," it added.

Owen Senior, 33, who set-up Bear Blades, said it had yet to hear anything else from Bear Grylls Ventures.

He told the Mirror newspaper: "We have nothing official at the moment; that is the only concern we have.

"Our plan is just to carry on as we were and not change anything."

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