Anyone can use the Lotto name
11/09/2009 11:26:04
A court this week has ruled that anyone can use the lotto name after Camelot – who run the UK National Lottery – attempted to sue an online lottery magazine for the use of the word Lotto. The court however ruled that as Lotto is a generic word it cannot be trademarked and is free to be used by anyone. This of course may well open the floodgates on lottery websites and even lottery type games bearing the name Lotto.
Of course when the UK National Lottery was launched in 1994 it simply went by that name but since several other lottery draws have been launched alongside the National Lottery is has been rebranded at Lotto or UK Lotto.
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UK National Lottery (UK) |
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UK National Lottery (Outside UK) |
This set it apart from the other draws such as Dream Number and Thunderball and allowed the lottery to develop its own branding.
This decision by the judge will no doubt come as a massive blow to Camelot who run the UK Lotto but no doubt lottery portals such as this one will be cheering at the little win against the big, big company.
The freedom to use the word Lotto still doesn’t extend as far as lottery branding and logo’s and using the National Lottery logo or any of their game logos is still illegal as they are copyrighted so you don’t need to worry about being drawn into any bogus draws.
You’ll still be able to see which is the lotto draw by their branding but there’s no doubt that Lotto is one word you’ll be seeing a lot more of in company names and websites.
Written by Lottie McD
Page Last Updated: 27/10/2009 22:16:40
