A two-man waste clearance company called 'Lord of the Bins' has been summoned to abandon its title by Lord of the Rings lawyers.
Brighton-based business proprietors Nick Lockwood and Dan Walker, both 36, were told in a letter to cease all use of the Lord of the Bins name, including their website and social media pages by February 1.
In the letter, seen by a newspaper outlet, they were also told to quit using their tagline 'One Ring to Remove It All' in order to sidestep any legal action being taken.
The letter was served on January 18 by law firms Simmons & Simmons, acting for Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the worldwide stage, film and merchandising rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy authored by JRR Tolkien.
But the small business owners have hit back insisting that they just wanted to make people smile and wanted both creative companies to live on together.
They claim that they're just trying to make a living and doubt people will mistake them for Lord of the Rings.
Mr Lockwood told the newspaper outlet that they were just two men who grew up together and went to school together in Brighton and that they were self-funded and couldn't afford a court battle, and that they were facing the possibility of having to totally rebrand, and that for a small business, it could have a damaging impact moving forward.
Mr Lockwood said it was easily going to be £5,000 and above, but that they would prevail he was sure, but that the impact would last a prolonged time.
He said that they've put their heart and soul into the business, and to think that it could be taken away from them was distressing and that they've had stressful nights talking to solicitors.
Mr Lockwood said that this was both of their livelihoods and that they were between a rock and a hard place, and that they couldn't afford to fight this legally in court, and they were hoping they could make enough noise so that it gets taken away from a legal conversation.
He said that they both have young children and it's stressful to think of the impact this could have.
Mr Lockwood said that if they don't turn up on time, no one's going to throw their Lord of the Rings DVD in the bin, and if they bring out a box office hit, he didn't think more people were going to ring up for waste collection.
To be fair, I'm sure this isn't going to hurt the multi-million-dollar franchise. However, they have become the Lord of the whinge.
I've even been past a fish and chip shop called 'The Codfather', but no one's assumed it was run by the mafia, and actually, I believe JRR Tolkien would have seen the humorous side of that, and I'm sure that both name and the slogan that they're using was brilliant.
And rather than bullying small fry businesses like this, why don't they start with the larger fish like Michael Flatley and 'Lord of the Dance' - but they're just bully boys picking on little men so that they can get a buck or two, unfortunately, these men are small fry and don't even have a chip.
It's an extremely smart and witty name, and these mean-spirited bullies should just do one, and the lawyers are just being pathetic. Keep the name, add an E on the end of Lord and change the font, job done.
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