pub vs publisher: Vogue fashion magazine requests name change for British hamlet cafe

The county of Cornwall is not exactly known as a place of pilgrimage for devout believers. haute couture† Still, US fashion magazine Vogue speculated that readers might be confused about the magazine’s connection to a bar in the far south west of England: Vogue’s Star Inn. The devil wears Prada and drinks beer, Vogue thought.

Although the bar has been around for more than 200 years and the magazine has been in existence for 129 years, it was only last March that lawyers at publishing house Condé Nast came up with the idea to write the owner of the bar and ask him for his name. And whether the owners of the village inn were ready to answer within a week.

“At first I thought someone from the village was trying to prank me,” owner Mark Graham told the BBC. “But it turned out that the letter was real.”

Madonna

So Graham and his wife, Rachel, decided to write a letter to Vogue. “On the one hand I found your letter very interesting, on the other hand I found it funny and funny,” he wrote. “We were the first.”

Graham explained that the pub, called The Vogue by the locals, is not only much older than the fashion magazine, but Vogue is also the name of the hamlet where the pub is located. And that the hamlet is much older than the bar.

“I assume you’re not asking permission from actual Vogue residents if you choose the name in all caps. I also assume that Madonna didn’t ask permission to use the word Vogue when she made a song in 1990. same name,” Graham continued. “You are both free to use the all-caps version without our permission.”

The Grahams have been running the bar for seventeen years and have no plans to change the name and write “Absolutely NO” to Vogue.

search on google

Although the letter looked menacing, it was mostly laughed at. “It’s surprising that these days someone doesn’t google it and see that Vogue is a hamlet in Cornwall. Common sense has apparently asked for permission.”

Last week a new letter came in. Publisher Condé Nast revealed that the House of Companies regularly audits, similar to our Chamber of Commerce. This is where the bar came into existence when the Grahams chose a different legal entity for their bar. “You’re absolutely right that if our team had done a little more research, we wouldn’t have sent a letter in this situation.”