Lewis Silkin is representing Nissan as it applies for an injunction against pro-Brexit campaign group Vote Leave.
Mid-sized firm Lewis Silkin is acting for Nissan as the car giant brings an action to the High Court today (20 June) against Vote Leave, after the out campaign group used Nissan’s logo in a leaflet.
Lewis Silkin divisional managing partner Giles Crown (pictured) is leading a team acting for the car giant.
Crown, who spent five years at a barrister at media chambers One Brick Court before joining Lewis Silkin, is a media and reputation management specialist.
He has also been instructed on landmark IP cases inlcuding for mobile operator 3 against O2, and Whirlpool Corporation in a dispute with Kenwood over cake mixers.
Nissan says the Brexit group has used the manufacturer’s name and logo on its literature and website without its permission, even after it was requested Vote Leave remove it.
The logo appeared in pro-leave material alongside other global manufacturers in a section asking, ‘Would jobs be at risk?’. The leaflet used the logo next to a caption that said ‘major employers … have all said they’ll stay in the UK whatever the result of the referendum’.
The company said: ‘Permission to use our name and logo was not requested. If it was, it would not have been granted.
‘To be clear, Nissan is not supporting any political campaign regarding this most serious of issues. This is a matter for the British public to decide.’
The firm said it had issued legal proceedings calling for an injunction and an end to ‘further false statements and representations concerning Nissan’.
Nissan said the request for Vote Leave to stop using their name ‘has been clearly denied’.
Vote Leave did not respond for comment.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk