University of Cambridge in trademark battle with rowing company

When Omar Terywall founded his company, Cambridge Rowing Limited seemed like the obvious name for the company.

The company runs the Cambridge Rowing Experience, which takes novice rowers to the River Cam for a taste of the sport.

But the University of Cambridge has lodged a legal challenge to the trademark, which Terywall, 46, described as “appalling” and “bullying”.

He founded the firm in his hometown of Cambridge in 2021 and applied to register the name the following year.

But the university filed a formal objection a few months later, saying it “must protect trademarks to prevent misuse.”

The hearing on the challenge is set for 2025, and a decision is expected in the early months of this year.

According to Terywall, the company has “introduced rowing to over 5,000 people” since its founding, including hundreds of “local kids”.

Explaining the name, he says: “The company is Cambridge Rowing Limited and it is a Cambridge rowing experience – that is essentially what it is.

“This is where we are and this is what I do.”

Application submitted for Cambridge Rowing register a trademark – a shield with a rower on it and the words “Cambridge Rowing” underneath – in January 2022.

The following May, the Rector, Masters and Academics of the University of Cambridge objected to the application.

He left Terywall “not knowing where to turn”.

The university was a “huge multi-billion pound asset” while his was “a very small local business”.

“It’s scary, it really is,” he says.

“It’s pretty scary to have a huge organization like them behind you.”

When asked if he felt the university was trying to bully his company, Terywall cites his “great relationship” with “the colleges and the university.”

But he adds: “It can be scary for the university to emerge as an entity, and I think, yes, there is a form of bullying there.”

UK trade marks can be registered in 45 different classifications. Cambridge Rowing has applied to register its logo in class 25 for sportswear, class 35 for merchandising and class 41 for corporate hospitality, sporting events and education.

Founded in 1209, the university registered the brand “Cambridge” as a trademark in class 41, including “sporting and cultural activities” and “sports camp services”.

He objected to attempts by several companies to add the word “Cambridge” to their names, arguing that “the public knows that in educational, publishing, sports, academia and research contexts the word ‘Cambridge’ always refers to the University of Cambridge”.

Terywall’s company operates out of the City of Cambridge Rowing Club, one of the few “country clubs” in the city that are not run by the university.

He says the city is “very proud of what the university has achieved in Cambridge”.

“They did quite well, but like rowing, Cambridge existed long before the university.”

Accordingly World RowingWhile the oar is “considered the most important invention before the wheel”, the earliest representation of a rowing boat was found in Finland and dates back to B.C. It was dated to 5,800 BC.

The website adds that “rowing as we know it today has its origins in England, where the world-famous Oxford to Cambridge University Boat Race was first held on the River Thames in 1829.”

Terywall adds: “It’s crazy to take ownership of the words ‘Cambridge’ and ‘rowing’.

“In fact, no one has the right to the word ‘Cambridge’ and no one can claim to own the word ‘rowing’; it belongs to all of us.”

Intellectual property lawyer Liz Ward, who runs Virtuoso Legal, says Terywall believes Cambridge Rowing’s attempt to register its 41st grade logo for “sports education” and “sports coaching” will “pitch him directly into conflict with the university”.

“I don’t think they’ll be successful in the 41st grade,” he says.

“Of all the universities in the UK, you cannot deny that Cambridge is synonymous with rowing.”

Ward notes the university’s “outstanding reputation in rowing”, including the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race and the coveted Cambridge Blue award for those who represent the institution in the sport.

“The university is probably trying to protect its reputation when it comes to sports, and rowing is a sport,” he says.

“You might say, ‘Well, this is something that’s more synonymous with a university than a startup.'”

of the university previous trademark oppositions They have targeted several Cambridge-based science and technology companies that use the word “Cambridge” in their names, with mixed success.

Intellectual Property Office in 2021 The decision was made in favor of the university said a brewery failed to register “Cambridge Blue” as the name of a Boat Race-themed beer.

The hearing officer in that case said the name could give the “false message that the products are authorized, recommended or approved” by the University of Cambridge, which could give the brewery an “unfair advantage.”

A spokesman for the University of Cambridge said it had “often been exposed to fraudulent actors misrepresenting their affiliation with the university” and had “spent a great deal of time supporting people who were misled and often in great distress”.

They add: “We need to protect trademarks to prevent misuse, although we recognize that this is not our intention in all cases.

“Without protection, fraud increases.

“We will always seek to work constructively with others who wish to use our trademark for legitimate reasons.”

When asked if he could change his company’s name, Terywall said that wasn’t an option, “because that would imply that I’ve done something wrong and I haven’t.”

“The name of my company reflects what I do, which is ‘Cambridge Rowing’, and that is exactly what we do.”