Camelot in legal spat over Littlewoods ads

Camelot is consulting lawyers after rival lottery operator Littlewoods used its “Be Lucky” idea for an advertising campaign.

Littlewoods has launched its own campaign, featuring the same strapline as the National Lottery operator had been planning to use for its forthcoming campaign.

Littlewoods began running its campaign in national newspapers this week. The ads feature the strapline that Camelot is to use in its marketing, from scratchcards to the superdraw games, from next month (MW last week).

A source close to Camelot claims Littlewoods’ ads were booked after details of the National Lottery operator’s &£12m ad campaign emerged earlier this month. But a Littlewoods spokeswoman denies this was intended as a spoiler campaign and says the company has been working on its ad campaign since early June.

Littlewoods also registered the trademark “Be Lucky” at the end of June.

Camelot only attempted to trademark the “Be Lucky” text with its logo at the end of July.

Camelot is consulting its lawyers on the issue and is said by other legal sources to be opposing the trademark on the grounds that “Be Lucky” is a generic description that anyone can use.

A legal source says there could be a “nuclear battle” on the point of whether “Be Lucky” can be trademarked. He says: “Camelot will clearly still want to use it but Littlewoods will be trying to establish an advantage.”

A Camelot spokesman says: “We are aware that Littlewoods has applied to register “Be Lucky”. Camelot has also filed its own application to register “Be Lucky” as a stylised logo. The words “be lucky” are free to use and no one trader can claim to have exclusive rights in such a term.”