Motoring giant tries to put brakes on Capital mechanic

A MECHANIC has accused Kwik-Fit of trying to "bully" his business after the firm threatened to take him to court for copying its name.

• Tony Dolan

Tony Dolan, from Musselburgh, said he was left baffled and astounded after a lawyer representing Kwik-Fit e-mailed to say that the name, logo, flyers and website of his independent business in Abbeyhill - called Qwik Lube Ltd - was "confusingly similar" to the Kwik-Fit brand.

Mr Dolan insists that his firm is nothing like the tyre and exhaust giant and said the firm was "trying to throw their weight around" to scare him into changing his marketing.

The mechanic, who opened his business two months ago, said: "I checked my name with Trading Standards before I starting the business and I find their letter entirely inappropriate because Qwik Lube is not a registered trademark. How they think people could get confused is beyond me.

"When I designed my logo I made sure it looked like no other and, while the website does use blue and yellow colours, it is entirely different to Kwik-Fit's. You could never mix them up. I only picked the colours because they instill confidence and are popular, according to market research."

Mr Dolan received a letter from Grant Spencer lawyers on September 7 stating that the Qwik Lube mark is "confusingly similar to our client's well-known trade mark".

It added: "Moreover you are using a combination of colours identical to the colours used by our client and you have listed the types of service in a manner that is identical in content and order to that appearing on our client's website.

"This use has clearly been designed to resemble our client's trade mark, get up and website and takes advantage of our client's reputation."

According to Kwit-Fit, Mr Dolan's business infringes trademark rights. The firm points out that Kwit-Fit may choose to take the issue to court to be resolved.

To prevent this the company has requested that Mr Dolan stop using all marks relating to the phrase "Qwik", cease using his colour scheme, change the list appearing under "What's included in my service" and destroy all printed matter, including signs and flyers.

Mr Dolan, however, has ignored the letter, branding it "ludicrous". He said he would only consider changing the "what's included in my service" list. He conceded: "That is the same, so I would consider changing that. That wasn't intentional.

"I don't know why this action has come about, but it seems like really bad form against a small, local business."

He added: "We don't even have similar business models. Qwik Lube deal more with oil changes and servicing rather than tyre changes. We don't even keep tyres on site."

A Kwik-Fit spokesman said: "We can't comment on issues which are being handled by our legal advisers, other than to say that almost four decades have been spent building the Kwik-Fit brand into one of Scotland's biggest success stories.

"Protecting the investment in that brand is therefore very important for the future of our company and our employees."