A waste refuge firm in Brighton has been hit with a cease and desist letter over its pun-tastic Lord of the Rings branding.
The company, co-owned by Dan Walker and Nick Lockwood, is called Lord of the Bins, promising potential customers that it just takes ‘one ring to remove it all’.
It’s safe to say that hasn’t gone down well with Middle-earth Enterprises which owns the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Appearing on Friday’s episode of Good Morning Britain, the duo insisted they haven’t been too ‘naughty’ but rather ‘close to the line’, and they admitted they’re ‘proud’ of the funny name.
Since receiving an email from Middle-earth, the duo find themselves on the brink of either a potential battle with a multi-million dollar corporation or a re-brand of their company, which has grown from one van to ‘a few fans and a couple of lads’ joining the team.
‘All jokes aside, it has been keeping us awake at night,’ said Dan. ‘We’re having to deal with all the coverage and everything we’ve had, we have a family life and we’re still trying to work.
‘And also, in the back of our minds, it is still niggling at us that we’re gonna get a response and we might still have to shut everything down.’
The company have been offered free legal advice regarding trademarks, and while Middle-earth Enterprises didn’t respond to GMB’s request for a comment, Dan and Nick used the opportunity to plead their case.
‘We’re just a small waste clearance firm based down in Brighton. We didn’t even think they’d notice who we are,’ Nick said. ‘I think this sheds light on the bigger problem of big corporations stifling creative freedom of expression by having more money.
‘We might be close to edge with some of our branding and name, but there’s loads of companies that just base it on a similar name and they get stifled.’
There has been plenty of support for the firm, with people offering their own ideas for potential name changes – Dan’s favourites include Dustbin Bieber, Bin Diesel and Bindiana Jones.
The GMB team made their own suggestions too, with Bin-dependence Day edging out The Greatest Binmen, while the duo joked that Forrest Dump wasn’t an option because they ‘don’t want Tom Hanks on our case’.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV1.
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