BANKSY could lose the right to his own name in a landmark case against the world famous artist.
The faceless graffiti star is being forced to defend his trademark of the word Banksy to sell images and merchandise.
A case brought by greeting card company Full Colour Black and its owner Andrew Gallagher claim the unknown artist had failed to use the trademark.
Gallagher is already suing Banksy for defamation in a separate case over an Instagram post that allegedly encouraged followers to steal from the GUESS store on Regents Street after it advertised an apparent collaboration.
Businessman Gallagher, who sells photos of the artist’s public work, has applied to have Banksy’s trademark cancelled for “non-use”.
And for the first time one of the artist’s team will be forced to give evidence in a tribunal of the Intellectual Property Office in April to counter the claims.
A source said: “They will have to stand up like a ventriloquist’s puppet and say Banksy’s words in the tribunal.
“Banksy may be in court but we won’t know who he is.”
It will be the first time someone representing Banksy will be speaking publicly and forced to answer questions about him.
A director of his firm, Pest Control Office, will try to prove that Banksy has sold items of merchandise between 2017 and 2022.
Pest Control Office, which charges to authenticate Banksy images, says it sold a number of items including clocks, cushions, mugs, t-shirts and a handbag through his online store.
Banksy in the past has eschewed commercialism and once wrote “copyright is for losers”.
But his company says this does not give the public “free rein to misrepresent the artist and commit fraud”.
A source close to the case told The Sun: “He’s had the registrations for years and hasn’t used them.
“Everyone and his dog uses Banksy descriptively, when you see Banksy describing something you don’t necessarily think it comes from Banksy, it doesn’t function as a trademark anymore.
“He hasn’t sold things with the word Banksy, he doesn’t do spin off and merchandise.
“Him owning the trademark is problematic for the industry, it allows Pest Control to flex their muscles in a way that is potentially unfair for competition.
“Someone from Pest Control will be put in the tribunal and swear on the bible and will be grilled on what they do, and all these various facts, and finally say something on the record.”
In 2019, Banksy launched a pop-up shop called Gross Domestic Product in Croydon in response to his legal battles.
The shop never officially opened to the public but showcased his merchandise including the stab-proof vest worn by Stormzy at Glastonbury.
In a rare public statement, he said: “A greetings card company is contesting the trademark I hold to my art, and attempting to take custody of my name so they can sell their fake Banksy merchandise legally.”
Banksy’s popularity has soared in the past decade with the artist continuing his guerilla graffiti campaign on streets around the country.
In 2018 his work “Girl With Balloon” sold for £1m at Sotheby’s when a hidden shredder was activated destroying half the image.
It was returned to auction three years later and sold for a record £18.5million.
But the anonymous street artist’s work was nicked during a 37-second heist at Grove Gallery back in September last year – with two men later being charged.
However, the artwork was later recovered and returned to the Grove.
It isn’t the first time the artist’s work has been nicked.
Last August, his Peckham Wolf satellite piece was stolen.
And in 2023, a man was also arrested after a £500,000 Banksy artwork was removed from a street sign with bolt cutters.
Who is Banksy?
BANKSY first got noticed for spray-painting trains and walls in his home city of Bristol during the early 1990s.
Street art and graffiti can be considered criminal damage so it’s thought the artist stayed anonymous to avoid a run-in with the law.
In the beginning, his pieces were mainly created in Bristol, but in the 2000s his artworks started appearing all over the UK and other parts of the world.
Banksy chose to use stencils to create his pieces, probably because it’s a faster way to paint.
He was influenced in his early days by a French graffiti artist called Blek le Rat.
Blek le Rat is considered to be the father of stencil graffiti and people sometimes confuse the work of the two artists.
Banksy doesn’t only do street art – he has produced drawings, paintings and installation pieces.
The anonymous artist no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti.
But his public “installations” are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on.
He has also created his own theme park called Dismaland.
Banksy has left his memorable mark all over the world but has been most prolific in the UK.
The guerrilla artist is known to have created more than 120 works spanning three decades.
- In 2002, There is Always Hope – possibly the artist’s most famous work – appeared on the South Bank in London.
- Devolved Parliament, Banksy’s 13ft wide painting of chimpanzees in the House of Commons, hit the headlines in October 2019 when it sold at auction for £9.9million.
- GCHQ Government Spies Telephone Box was created in April 2014. The piece in Cheltenham shows three men wearing sunglasses and using listening devices to snoop on a phone box.
- In May 2020, Banksy unveiled new artwork Game Changer, which was painted on the wall of a ward at Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire.
- On July 14, 2020, Banksy returned to the London Underground with a work encouraging people to wear face masks. The work, called If You Don’t Mask, You Don’t Get, features a number of rats in pandemic-inspired poses, wearing face masks – but it was scrubbed off by cleaners.
- In October 2020, a Banksy mural appeared on the side of a building in Rothesay Avenue in Nottingham. The artwork shows a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tyre. The mural has now been removed and sold to an Essex art gallery, disappointing local people who had hoped it would stay in the city.
- In December 2020, a Covid-inspired Banksy mural of a woman sneezing out her dentures on the side of a semi-detached home popped up on the side of a house in Bristol.
- In March 2020, Banksy confirmed an image showing a prisoner escaping from a former Reading Prison with a typewriter at the bottom of a “rope” made out of sheets of paper knotted together, was one of his works.
- In November 2022, Banksy has made his mark in Ukraine after unveiling a painting of a gymnast on the side of a tower block bombed by Russia.
- In February 2023, a new Banksy piece was confirmed after artwork showing a bruised woman pushing a man into a freezer appeared on the side of a building in Margate, Kent. The image depicted a 1950s housewife in an apron and washing-up gloves. a closer look revealed the woman had a swollen eye and a missing tooth. The artwork also incorporated a freezer – believed to have been placed up against the wall purposely – and a man’s legs sticking out as she closes the lid on him.
- In December 2023, a new Banksy artwork was removed from a south London street less than an hour after it was confirmed to be a genuine installation. The artist confirmed the artwork – a traffic stop sign covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones – was his in a social media post shortly after midday.
- In March 2024, a new Banksy tree mural was sprayed on the side of a home in London. However, two days later images showed two streaks of white paint covering the green artwork.
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