SURELY HIS LORDSHIP IS TAKING THE PIECE? Owner forced to change shop name after Earl of Sandwich legal threats.
A SANDWICH shop owner feared he would lose his business in a copyright row – with the Earl of Sandwich.
Neil Corall, 31, had operated his shop, called the Earl of Sandwich, for seven years without any problems.
He was stunned when he discovered aristocratic John Edward Hollister Montagu, the 11th Earl of Sandwich, was demanding thousands of pounds from him in damages and costs.
And even when he agreed to change the name of his shop to avoid a costly legal battle, the earl – who cashes in on his family fame with a chain of franchise restaurants in the US – demanded a pounds 2000 “goodwill payment”.
Sink Neil said: “It came as a massive shock. When you run a small business, this is the last thing you need. I was worried it was going to sink me. I immediately sought legal advice and tried to come to an agreement.”
Neil’s business is based in the historic Green area in the centre of his home city of Aberdeen.
He had started using the brand name to sell T-shirts and set up a MySpace website. But he was worried all his hard work was to be for nothing when he got a threatening letter from solicitors acting for the earl.
Montagu has been running his business, also called the Earl of Sandwich, since 2004 in America, first launching it at Walt Disney World in Florida.
He now plans to expand into the UK and Europe, so doesn’t want anyone using his trademark. He demanded pounds 1500 in costs and pounds 2000 in damages from Neil.
Neil said: “My solicitors told me the guy was being heavy-handed. All he had to do was give me a call or get someone else to call me and we could have sorted everything out. There was no need to go to court and start sending letters demanding cash.”
Neil agreed to change the name of his company to E.A.R.L – which stands for Eat A Real Lunch.
He also changed his MySpace page and his listing in the Yellow Pages.
Neil added: “After we came to the agreement, I got another letter asking for pounds 2000 as a goodwill payment. That was ignored. Everyone always referred to the shop as ‘the earl’ anyway, so no real harm has been done.”
A spokesman for the Earl of Sandwich chain said last night Neil would not have to pay costs.
He said: “We are a small business with a trademark and all we asked was that he change the name to avoid confusion.”
Neil said: “If the company are saying now that I don’t have to pay the goodwill payment then that is a relief.”
The Earl of Sandwich – one of the 90 hereditary peers in the House of Lords - launched his US venture with son Orlando, who is married to the Duke of Wellington’s granddaughter.
The sandwich was famously invented in 1762 to allow his ancestor the 4th Earl to eat while playing cards.
The spokesman for the American Earl of Sandwich company said: “We have to avoid confusion.”
Crumbs! 11th Earl of Sandwich demanded thousands of pounds from takeaway which used the same name
A takeaway owner who called his shop the Earl of Sandwich has been forced to change its name – by the earl himself.
Neil Corall was sent a lawyer’s letter on behalf of the 11th Earl of Sandwich demanding a name change, thousands of pounds in damages and legal fees.
It seems that the aristocrat, John Edward Hollister Montagu, has started his own fast-food chain in the U.S. using his name.
He now plans to expand into the UK and claims that Mr Corall’s shop in Aberdeen breaches his trademark.
Mr Corall, 31, said the whole affair has left a bitter taste in his mouth. He has been forced to change the name of his company to E.A.R.L of Sandwich, made to delete the company’s MySpace profile and remove their listing from Yell.com.
He said: ‘I was a little concerned when I received a letter in January – the last thing you want to see at the start of the year is a letter from a lawyer threatening your business and asking for money.
They could have just contacted me direct instead of spending all the money on lawyers. I would have changed the name.’
The earl is a direct descendant of John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who is credited with inventing sandwiches in 1762.
His American firm already has outlets in Florida, Texas, Detroit and Boston. Mr Corall, who started his business in 2002, added: ‘We were here first, but regardless, we never trademarked the name so we were infringing on their trademark. We changed the name and there is not much else we could do. They still wanted £1,500 from me as a goodwill gesture.
‘Needless to say they are not going to get it.’
A spokesman for the U.S. company said it was protecting its overseas interests. He said: ‘The Earl of Sandwich was launched in the U.S. and has been there for a number of years.
‘We now have plans to launch in the UK and Europe and we have trademarks both in the name Lord Sandwich and the Earl of Sandwich in relation to various things, in particular sandwiches and the provision of sandwiches.
‘With the launch of shops in the UK and Europe we have to avoid confusion with similar businesses – that is essential for a successful launch.’
How the sandwich got its name
The first written mention of the original fast food was by 18th century historian Edward Gibbon, who referred in his journal to ‘bits of cold meat’ as a ‘Sandwich’.
It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat, although the exact sequence of events remains open to debate.
In the most celebrated version, it is said that he first ordered his valet to bring him salt beef tucked between two pieces of bread in the summer of 1762 so he could eat without interrupting his passion for gambling.
He is supposed to have favoured this form of food, because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.
And because Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order “the same as Sandwich!”
More prosaically, Sandwich’s biographer, N. A. M. Rodger, suggests the eponymous snack was invented not to save time at the gaming tables but so that his Lordship – a workaholic minister of state – did not have to leave his desk for lunch.