Exxon Corporation v Exxon Insurance Consultants International Ltd [1982] Ch 199
This case is authority for the fact that typically there is no copyright in a name - invented or otherwise - and that a trade mark can only be infringed when there the infringing party shares part of the market segment
Exxon Corporation argued that there was a copyright over the word "Exxon" because they put considerable time and energy into the development of the name, and as there was a significant investment into creating the name it was an "original literary work". Furthermore they argued that the actual size of the literary work does not matter - so the fact that Exxon was only a mere name would not preclude it from being an "original literary work".
The Court found that the name Exxon, while a trade mark, is only a word and cannot be copyrighted. A word alone does not convey any information beyond its dictionary meaning and thus cannot be a literary work with regards to the trade mark, the Court found that the use of this word by the defendants who work in a field that in no way shares a market segment with the plaintiff in no way dilutes the plaintiff's brand name nor infringe on its trade mark.
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