Just down the road from my crumbling flat in Hackney Legal Cheek’s Dalston studios is Jaguar Shoes, a bar and gallery. With its clientele of hipsters and ageing wannabes like myself, the place isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
But the alternating art installations Jaguar Shoes hosts make it an interesting place to have a drink – and it’s basically an example of a small business run by people who care about what they do, working hard to do it well.
So I was sorry to hear yesterday that Jaguar Land Rover has launched legal proceedings against Jaguar Shoes (named after the old shoe shop it replaced) on the grounds that its name is too similar to theirs. The dispute came about after Jaguar Shoes, set up in 2001, attempted to protect its name by registering it as a trademark.