Source: Daily Mail, 13 January 2011

What's that?

For many, the most vital part of any business is its name, making companies stand out from competitors. If you are lucky enough, your firm's name could take on a meaning of its own, like Googling or Hoovering.

It's important?

Yes and there's big money to be made protecting such icons, with lawyers charging enormous fees and multi-million pound cases before the courts.

Any examples?

Kentucky Fried Chicken fought a small Scottish restaurant, Titanic Pizza, over their Family Feast meals, claiming a breach of copyright. Facebook is currently trying to sue spoof site Lamebook and London Underground threatened to sue pop-up restaurant The Underground Restaurant – lawyers calling it 'detrimental to our client's brand'.

How much does it all cost?

Lawyers aren't cheap. Indeed, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou ischallenging the fees Bird & Bird want to charge him for his battle with easyJet over royalties for the use of the name. The bill comes in at a whopping £2.3m, including £90,000 for photocopying. Sir Stelios paid most of the fee, but is questioning why, for example, a junior lawyer billed him for £500,000 reportedly saying: 'I refuse to accept his contribution is worth half a million.'