Thursday 19 May 2022 04:01 PM Skateboarding entrepreneur bombarded with legal threats by Ann Summers over ... trends now
A skate clothes entrepreneur said he was bombarded with legal threats from lingerie firm Ann Summers — for using Cornish regional slang on his brand name.
Marc Diggett, 39, owned a barbershop named Ansum — Cornish slang meaning 'top notch' which originates from the affectionate term 'me ansom', meaning 'my handsome'.
It proved a hit at a skatepark where he cut hair in a shipping container.
The barber said that customers were often asking where they could get the branded hoodies he wore for work, and when he lost the premises in the pandemic, he decided to branch out into streetwear including t-shirts, hoodies and caps.
Marc Diggett, 39, said he was bombarded with legal threats from lingerie firm Ann Summers — for using Cornish regional slang Ansum on his brand name
'I had the idea to try and bring the brand into fruition,' Mr Diggett said.
But a week before he expected to get the trademark, he was stunned to receive a letter from lingerie giant Ann Summers telling him it was opposing his plans, in July 2020.
'At the time I had lost the premises, I was going through a divorce and trying to start a new business,' he said.
'I had no legal protection as I was a sole trader.'
The underwear firm said the name could be mistaken for an abbreviation of Ann Summers.
A letter sent from a law firm said: 'The average consumer in the UK will not necessarily be familiar with the Cornish dialect or the meaning of the word 'Ansum', and the average consumer might perceive the word 'Ansum' as a shortened version of our client trade mark 'Ann Summers'.'
The brand said that Mr Diggett's name Ansum could be viewed as an abbreviation of Ann Summers. Pictured, former Love
