Tartan Law Suit - LL Bean & "Maine" tartan

**Highland Logan** · 4th April 07, 09:52 PM

L. L. Bean have been busy getting a name in the tartan world (see the below).

http://www.clanmacbean.net/more.html

An American company, L. L. Bean, was marketing a tartan that they called MacBean Hunting. This was brought to the attention of Chief James who challenged them on it, rightly asserting himself as the only person who could legally make such a designation. As a result, L. L. Bean renamed the tartan Bean of Freeport (Freeport, Maine, being the company location). James Scarlett comments, "There is a pattern called Bean of Freeport, which is a simple variation of the green Shaw of Tordarroch tartan. It has no official standing."

Frank

**flairball** · 5th April 07, 06:15 AM

Interesting. I don't quite understand what the chief of MacBean's authority is over the naming of a tartan though. My understanding was, and I could be mistaken, that if you design a tartan you can name it whatever you please, provided that name doesn't already exist. The clan chief just officially adopts the tartan if he feels it suits the clan. Lord Lyons role? I thought he had very little to do with tartans. Seems to me ol' LL was bullied by his clan chief.

Perhaps Matt could enlighten us a bit?

**RockyR** · 5th April 07, 06:32 AM

Actually, there are 2 things to hink about...

1. If you want the taran OFFICIALLY registered in the STA's registry (Scottish Tartan Authority), you have to get the approval of Brian Wilton, the STA's director. He will approve both the name and the tartan itself. If he says no, then you'll have to change the name to something else and get his approval. He's very nice and very easy to work with to help come up with name.

2. Just b/c you CREATE a tartan doesn't mean you HAVE to have it registered. You CAN create a tatan and call it whatever you want (as long as you don't call it something that's copyrighted... I.E. the "Walmart tartan" or "Burger King Tartan" or something) and have it copyrighted. It won't be in the official STA Registry, but it wil exist and if you have enough people like it / buy it, it may eventually get in by the simple nature of how common it is.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 5th April 07, 07:27 AM

Tartan can sometimes be very confusing.

There is no rule that says you cannot have more than one tartan share the same name. For instance, there are three different tartans named "Rainbow" that were designed by three different people, at three different times, for three different purposes. It just so happened that each did so (well, two of them) out of ignorance that there was already a tartan by that name. Since the word "Rainbow" is not a trademark (like Rocky pointed out with names like Walmart or Burger King) there it no legal reason why you can't design a new tartan and call it "Rainbow." It just gets horribly confusing is all. Which is why if you tried to have the tartan recorded with the STA, Brian would probably advise you very strongly to select a different name for the tartan.

One has to remember that tartan really is not regulated at all. It is not like heraldry, with a Lyon Court ruling over it. Tartan is an industry, and aside from intellectual property laws that keep one mill from copying another mill's unique designs, there really is no legal regulation governing all of this. You have a curious mix of tradition, fashion, consumer demand, and artistic creativity. It does lead to a lot of confusion at times, but is also why tartan is such a vibrant living tradition and such an interesting study!

**Kilted KT** · 5th April 07, 07:32 AM

Matt, with all this confusion, I take it there is a weekly whisky tasting at the museum to help settle everyone's head and get all the tartans straight!

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 5th April 07, 08:04 AM

I wish!

**flairball** · 5th April 07, 08:19 AM

Wishing is just the first step.

**flairball** · 5th April 07, 09:28 AM

Trying to stay on topic; was LL Bean bullied by clan MacBean's chief, or were they in their right to name a tartan MacBean Hunting?

Seems to me they could have named it, and registered it as such. If the chief didn't like the tartan then he could have just not adopted it as their clan's hunting tartan version.

Also, has anyone heard anymore about the law suit over the "maine" tartan. Reading through the posts, I was wondering if the woman who brought the suit really has a case. She isn't the designer, so some of her protection must be weakened by that.