From royal hatters to top tailors: James Bond lawyers line up trademark fight team
Has James Bond assembled a crack team that can successfully take on his latest adversary?
Lawyers representing Danjaq, the US company that controls the rights to worldwide James Bond merchandising in conjunction with the UK company Eon Productions, have filed evidence running to 227 pages as it battles to retain control of the superspy's name across Europe.
In February, the Guardian revealed that a Dubai-based property developer had filed claims in the UK and EU arguing that lack of use meant various protections had lapsed around James Bond's intellectual property, including his name, his 007 assignation and the catchphrase 'Bond, James Bond'.
Nearly all nine of the trademarks being challenged relate to the merchandising of goods and services under the Bond name, which can be challenged after five years of 'non-use'.
Josef Kleindienst, an Austrian who is building a $5bn (£3.7bn) luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six artificial islands off Dubai, has argued that the trademarks have been commercially underexploited.
Boehmert & Boehmert, one of the largest intellectual property (IP) law firms in Europe, representing Danjaq, has hit back, filing evidence to the European trademark office from a who's who of high-end partners still using the Bond name.
The filing starts with the 140-year-old Jermyn Street tailor, Turnbull & Asser, which describes itself as the 'definitive British shirtmaker' and created shirts for Sean Connery in the first Bond film, 1962's Dr No, continuing to do so since for Bond actors including Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
The firm is the personal shirtmaker to the king, who bestowed the company with his first royal warrant when, as the Prince of Wales, he was given the power to do so in 1980.
Turnbull & Asser created the shirt Charles wore on his coronation day in 2023, and a year later he renewed its royal warrant.
The evidence file also features Lock & Co, the world's oldest hatters with roots dating to 1676, whose heritage includes being responsible for fitting out first world war soldiers in their now familiar 'Mark 1' tin helmets before being deployed overseas.
The company, based in London's St James's Street, started its Bond relationship with one of its hats appearing in the now famous opening credit gun barrel scene in 1960's Dr No.
Lock & Co was also behind henchman Odd Job's famous lethal Coker, or bowler hat, in 1964's Goldfinger.
Bond fans can pay £537 for the James felt trilby, Dr No edition while women might take to the £662 Vesper, originally created for Eva Green to wear as Vesper Lynd in 2006's Casino Royale.
'In cases such as this the brand owner should respond by providing a robust package of evidence, assuming they are able to do so,' said Mark Caddle, partner and trademark lawyer at the European IP firm Withers & Rogers. 'Commercial use is often shown by sales figures and a selection of invoices to support them, as well as by evidence of marketing and communications activity, such as brochures, online advertising, physical advertising and social media posts.'
Commercial information has also been provided for the luxury sports lifestyle brand Bogner.
Willy Bogner Jr, who took over running the company founded by his father in 1932, has been credited for creating the world's first action skiing scenes for 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
He went on to create alpine scenes for Bond productions including The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and A View to a Kill.
Last year, the company launched its 'spy-ready' ski range – the Bognor X 007 collection – with products priced from $290 to $2,300 (about £205 to £1,700).
There is also product and commercial information from luxury cashmere and accessories brand N.Peal, founded in 1936 with a flagship store in London's Burlington arcade, which stocks a modern take on Bond, including a pair of £245 No Time to Die combat trousers.
Boehmert & Boehmert has called the trademark action an 'unprecedented assault' on the multibillion-pound global franchise.
'We will file evidence of use for each trademark,' said Rudolf Böckenholt, at Boehmert & Boehmert, in a defence filing. 'Considering the number of goods/services at issue for each trademark, this will be a submission considerable in length and size, including numerous attachments and exhibits.'
Kleindienst has extended his attempt to try to take control of the spy's various brands by also submitting his own trademark for James Bond in Europe. He has not, however, done the same in the UK.
The developer has said that he has launched the trademark action because he is concerned about the commercial future of the spy franchise, arguing that Bond 'will not die' on his watch.
Daniel Craig's last outing as 007, in No Time to Die, was released in 2021. With no announcement yet of his replacement or timeline for production of the next film, the franchise is on track to beat the previous longest gap between instalments of six years and four months.
Danjaq also co-owns the copyright to the existing Bond films, along with MGM Studios, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5bn in 2021. Days after the report of Kleindienst's legal challenges, it emerged that Amazon had paid more than $1bn to gain full 'creative control' of the franchise from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the longtime stewards of the Bond films.
With creative control, Amazon now has the power to move forward with new films and potentially TV spin-offs, without approval from the two British-American heirs to the film producer Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli, who had overseen the integrity of the character originally created in 1953 by the author Ian Fleming.
Denis Villeneuve, the man behind the Dune franchise, is directing the next Bond film. And Steven Knight, who is the co-creator of the gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and penned Peaky Blinders, has reportedly been brought on board to write the next 007 outing.
In March, Amazon confirmed that Amy Pascal and David Heyman would produce the film, although no release date or lead actor has yet been named. Pascal has experience with the Bond series in her previous position as Sony's chair of film, overseeing Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. She also had producer credits on the latest Spider-Man series.
Heyman is best known as the producer of the Harry Potter films as well as the Fantastic Beasts franchise and is now in pre-production on the HBO TV series adaptation of the stories. He is the second most commercially successful film producer of all time, with credits including Gravity, Paddington, Barbie, Wonka and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.
'We have the utmost respect for the legacy of James Bond,' said Kleindienst in response to the latest developments in the trademark case. 'Yet we must acknowledge a simple truth: there are clear trademark and copyright laws, which exist to prevent prolonged inactivity and ensure that cultural properties continue to serve the audiences that value them. Our goal is straightforward – to respect the legacy while ensuring that Bond remains relevant and accessible to all fans.'
This article was amended on 17 August 2025 to correct the spelling of the brand Bogner and of Willy Bogner Jr.
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The BBC has contacted the US Treasury department for truth, there have always been concerns about the lack of "digital sovereignty" in Europe, where US firms not only dominate the cloud-computing market, but also hardware, satellite internet and now artificial the region's main mobile operating systems - Apple and Android - and payment networks - Mastercard and Visa - are fears became urgent in May when it emerged that Karim Khan, the top prosecutor at the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC), had lost access to his Microsoft Outlook email account after being sanctioned by the White ICC has issued arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over their roles in the Israel-Gaza war - something Mr Trump called "illegitimate".Khan has since temporarily stepped aside until a sexual misconduct probe against him is says that "at no point" did it cease or suspend its services to the ICC, although it was in touch with the ICC "throughout the process that resulted in the disconnection". Since then digital sovereignty has shot up the agenda in Brussels, while some public bodies are already seeking alternatives to US is it realistic to think they could wean themselves off US technology?Digital sovereignty is loosely defined as the ability of a governing body to control the data and technology systems within its problem faced by those pursuing it is the lack of comparable does have its own providers, such as France's OVHCloud, or Germany's Germany's T-Systems or Delos, in cloud they account for a fraction of the market, and don't have the same scale or range of capabilities, says Dario Maisto, a senior analyst covering digital sovereignty at global business consultancy open-source alternatives are available for common software packages like Office and Windows, but while proponents say they are more transparent and accessible, none is as comprehensive or well known. But while moving to sovereign alternatives wouldn't "happen overnight", it's a "myth" to think it's not possible, says Mr notes that the German state of Schleswig-Holstein is currently in the process of phasing out Microsoft products like Office 365 and Windows in favour of open-source solutions such as LibreOffice and Linux. Denmark's Ministry for Digitalisation is piloting a similar scheme."We sometimes overvalue the role of proprietary software in our organisations," Mr Maisto says, pointing out that for key services like word processing and email, open-source solutions work just fine."The main reasons organisations don't use open source are a lack of awareness and misplaced fears about cyber security," he adds."Our prediction is in the next five to 10 years, there will be an accelerated shift [to these solutions] because of this wake-up call." Benjamin Revcolevschi, boss of OVHCloud, tells the BBC that firms like his are ready to answer the sovereignty needs of public and private organisations in Europe."Only European cloud providers, whose headquarters are in the EU and with European governance, are able to offer immunity to non-European laws, to protect sensitive and personal data," he Microsoft, Amazon and Google say they already offer solutions that address concerns about digital sovereignty, solutions which store data on severs in the clients' country or region, not in the tells the BBC that it also partners with trusted local EU suppliers like T-Systems, granting them control over the encryption of client data, and giving customers "a technical veto over their data". The German Army is one of its Microsoft president Brad Smith has promised the firm would take legal action in the "exceedingly unlikely" event the US government ordered it to suspend services, and that it would include a clause in European contracts to that effect."We will continue to look for new ways to ensure the European Commission and our European customers have the options and assurances they need to operate with confidence," a Microsoft spokesman told the BBC. Zach Meyers, from the Brussels-based Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) think tank, says it might make sense for Europe to develop its own limited sovereign cloud to protect critical government he adds that it's unrealistic to try to "get Americans out of the supply chain, or to ensure that there's Europeans in the supply chain at each point".He points to Gaia X - a scheme launched in 2020 to create a European-based alternative to large, centralised cloud platforms, which has faced significant criticism and delays."A lot of these [tech] markets are winner takes all, so once you're the first mover it's really hard for anyone else to catch up."Instead, Mr Meyers thinks Europe should focus on areas of technology where it might gain an edge."It could be the industrial use of AI, because Europe already has a much bigger, stronger industrial base than the US has," he says. 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But according to Mr Berjon, the EU has been dragging its feet."There is definitely political interest, but it's a question of turning it into a shared strategy."Matthias Bauer, director at the European Centre for International Political Economy, thinks the goal should be building up Europe's technology sector so it can compete with the US and a report on EU competitiveness in 2024, Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, noted Europe is "severely lagging behind" in new technologies, and that "only four of the world's top 50 tech companies are European"."It's currently much harder for a tech company based in the EU to scale across the bloc than it would be for the same company in the US," Mr Bauer says."You not only face different languages, but different contract law, labour market laws, tax laws, and also different sector-specific regulation."As for the theory that President Trump might flip a "kill switch" and turn off Europe's internet, he's highly sceptical."It would be a realistic scenario if we were close to a war, but I don't see that on the horizon."Yet Mr Maisto says organisations must take the risk seriously, however remote."Two years ago, we didn't think we would be talking about these topics in these terms in 2025. Now organisations want to get ready for what might happen."
