A family-run pub in a small Cornish village has been requested to vary its identify by the publishers of Vogue journal.
The Star Inn at Vogue, owned by husband-and-wife Rachel and Mark Graham, will get its identify from the village it’s in – Vogue, close to Redruth.
In March, the Grahams obtained a letter from Condé Nast, which acknowledged that the identify of their institution might “trigger issues” if folks believed it was affiliated with the well-known trend journal.
“So far as the general public is worried, a connection between your corporation and ours is prone to be inferred,” the letter stated.
“Please would you kindly tell us in what subject of enterprise your organization is buying and selling/meaning to commerce and whether or not you’ll change your organization’s identify with a view to keep away from issues arising.”
Rachel, the pub’s landlady, stated the couple initially thought the letter was a prank.
“After we first obtained the letter, we thought ‘that’s a bit daft, is that this a joke?’ After which we realised, ‘no it is a bit severe’,” she advised The Unbiased.
She stated the authorized motion was probably triggered by the couple registering their enterprise as a restricted firm in February.
Nevertheless, they’ve been operating the enterprise with its identify for 17 years, and the constructing is regarded as greater than 100 years outdated.
In his response to the writer’s authorized crew, Mark stated he discovered the letter “hilariously humorous”.
“If a member of your employees had taken the time to analyze, they’d have found that our firm is within the small village of Vogue,” he stated.
“Sure, that’s proper, Vogue is the identify of our personal village, which has been in existence for tons of of years.”
“In reply to your query of whether or not we’d change the identify of our firm, it’s a categoric NO,” he added.
Mark defined that the identify of the Star Inn was chosen based mostly on its location. He additionally questioned whether or not Vogue’s publishers had thought-about the village when naming the journal.
“I word in your letter that you’ve solely been inexistence since 1916, and I presume at the moment whenever you selected the identify Vogue, you didn’t search permission from the villagers of the true Vogue for his or her permission.
“Be happy to return to Cornwall and go to us for any additional info you require. I might love to point out you round our small village. I’ll even purchase you lunch and a beer on your bother.”
Whereas the couple are but to obtain a response from Condé Nast, Rachel stated they don’t assume additional authorized motion is probably going.
“We’re probably not involved about it,” she stated. “Any individual simply didn’t do their homework once they first noticed the identify [of the pub] pop up.
“If they’d simply googled us, they’d have seen we’re only a small neighborhood pub with no contradiction to them as {a magazine}. A number of Cornish persons are very up in arms [about it].”
The Unbiased has contacted Condé Nast for remark.
Kaynak: briturkish.com