BMW bans car dealer from using Mini name and logo

Mini World has been rebrand to ‘iNi World’ with an angry face emoji

Mini World Scotland
Photo: Bridgend Motor Company/Instagram

A used car dealer in Scotland has been forced to rebrand after BMW banned it from using the Mini name.

The Bridgend Motor Group launched its Mini World showroom in December, but was soon contacted by bosses in Germany for the unauthorised use of the Mini brand. The team at the showroom in Kilmarnock reacted by apologising to BMW, before covering up the logo, removing flags and changing the way Mini was written.

Emojis accompanied the new name of ‘iNi World’, but the corporate arrows on a black background remained, prompting another cease and desist letter from the BMW Group.

This forced the dealer into a second rebrand, with an angry face emoji covering the ’M’, and the name accompanied by an invitation to follow the story on social media. As Oscar Wilde said: “There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

In a message posted on Facebook, Bridgend Motor Group said: “So we thought we’d sorted out our problem with our signs but unfortunately we hadn’t.

”German HQ were back in touch last week following an update (including more photographic evidence!) from their local informer and they’re still not happy.

“More stern words. We thought we had changed everything to make them happy. We want to make them happy. We covered up our logo, we took down our flags and we changed the way Mini was written, but this still was not enough for German HQ. So now we’ve taken the further steps to keep them happy and hopefully it works this time.”

The dealer says it has contacted BMW for clarity on what is acceptable but has received no guidance.

A spokesperson for the BMW Group said: “We became aware that Bridgend Garage Ltd had been using the Mini brand name and logo to advertise their business. 

”Only authorised BMW Group retailers are allowed to use the Mini name and logo, and therefore Bridgend Garage Ltd was asked to cease use of these assets to prevent confusion.”

Source: Daily Record

3 Comments

  1. They tried to do this to a firm in padiham lancs but they had a registered trademark

    Reply
  2. we had exactly the same done to us with a bmw logo
    then have the cheek to moan when we stopped using them for parts

    Reply
  3. They did this years ago to my friends MG business when BMW originally bought out the company

    Reply

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