Urgent help gratefully accepted from you lovely people...!

L

lifeslemons

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www.eventingworldwide.com
Also posted in Competition Riders, but I need help this evening so I can send off his passport tomorrow morning. (It takes up to nine weeks to sort, and we need it for the first week in March
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Long story... so here goes...

The FEI have told me that I have to change the name of my horse Hennessy Cognac, since it's a trademark of the alcohol company, so they own the name. Having written to the company, they won't give us permission to use it, since we're not French!

Therefore, I need a name change, which I am finding rather upsetting because its been with him three years. He's called Henni/Hennessy Cognac in the stable, so really want to keep the Hennessy, but it sounds boring on its own!

We need four different options. I think I will have HennessyC, ('cos it sounds kinda cool!) and shove our Greenhill prefix on if needs be, but I don't really like either.

SUGGESTIONS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! (I can't just change the spelling of his full old name, since its the sound of the tannoy that matters.)
 
Greenhill Hennessy C is nice...
Hennessys Greenhill C?

Hennessy Cream? what colour is he? Photos?

(i know ive ranted abit about this but whatever you chose it will be better than my mares Lady Bonita Fire.. eeeugh)
 
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Hennessy Cormac? (If he has any Irish blood!
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Sorry but, ewww, Cormac are our local Road destroyers erm, workmen.
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Could you call him hennesseyXO - think Remy Martin own XO so Hennessey can't complain. But it still is a Brandy/liqueur. Or how about Hennessey Firewater - that sums the drink up in my opinion!! And if they try and stop that then they accept that fact too grin:
 
Hmm Have you actually registered him with any breed society with 'this' name? If so, & it has been accepted then I believe the FEI can not refuse it. A while ago I had 2 x 138's & wanted to name them after some very prolific winners from my pony days (ok long time ago) but on that basis I knew it could not be refused, providing they was reg with a breed society first. There was a bit of commotion but eventually the name was allowed with a numeral added. Worth a try
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it will be henessey they will block due to copyright laws. remember Cartier Freshman? as mentioned in the other thread not only the spelling but the pronunciation has to change as well, i was only aware of the spelling.

Hennessey will have an international trademark in place and i wouldn't want to be the wrong side of the court case for naming my horse a trademarked name. a lot you can get away with such as say 'pampers' or 'hoover' as there is enough difference between the name and its use in the circumstances. Hennessy cognac is very specific though to both the brand and the product so if you kept hennessey but added a different alcohol related connotation i think you would still find the name being refused. The reason that the FEI are stricter is because obviously the riders involved are competing nationally and far more likely to receive publicity and be open to a law suit.

Think your safer to go on a clever rewrite of the hennessy to be honest and keep the name as close as possible to the original.
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You could be right SC. In my case the name did not involve a 'trademark' name. Just a well known SJ horse. Funnily enough though it was actually the BSJA that told me of this route & it worked for me twice. At the end of the day, it is only a name. I think like you suggest it might be best to use a different spelling but achieve a similar result.
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Cheers you guys!

Just phoned BE, who are sorting it all out so I can send the passport straight to the FEI to save time. They said I might get away with Hen SC Cognac II, which I LOVE! The other suggests that will submit to the FEI, in order of preference, are
-Hennessy Cormac - thank you MizElz!
-Greenhill Hennessy - seeing as everyone seems to think its alright.
-Hennessy C
-Hennessy XO
-Hennessy Gold

I really like Hennessy Kojak - but wasn't he short and fat, whereas my horse is leggy, dark and beautiful!

All so complex! Some of them made me laugh - another person suggested Cognac de Hennessy! S_C, thanks for your advice, but BE have had other "Hennessy" or "Cognac" horses registered with them with no problems; its simply, as you say, the two words together are too specific and have only one possible meaning.
 
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