An Island solicitor is celebrating a High Court success by running the London Marathon. Michael Coyle, of Lawdit Solicitors in Newport and Southampton, will be running his 17th marathon on Sunday, and says it is likely to be his final 26-mile outing, particularly as he has been so busy with a key trademark case that he has failed to do any training.
Michael has been representing Charlie Lee, a software engineer who developed Google Chrome and also created the leading cryptocurrency Litecoin. Cryptocurrency is a form of payment that can be exchanged on-line for goods and services or traded at a profit. Unlike banknotes it does not exist in physical form and is not issued by a bank.
Charlie created Litecoin, one of the earliest alternatives to Bitcoin in his spare time when he was working at Google, and released it to the public in 2011. He turned to Lawdit for help when a competitor started using his brand name Litecoin for an alternative product. He said: “Someone claimed ownership of my brand and we had to do something about it, which resulted in us instructing Michael at Lawdit. Thankfully, we won and the court refused to allow the abuse to continue. I’m very relieved.”
Michael said: “There were some important principles at stake in this case, which although clear had never before been applied to this new technology.
“This was a landmark case, with a happy outcome, which highlighted the importance of trademarks, whatever business you are in. It’s important that companies do register their trademarks, as without doing so any business is vulnerable to an attack.
“I’m running this final marathon to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, in memory of my sister Jane, who died two years ago from MND.
“I’m looking forward to Sunday, but I know that Monday’s going to be painful. I’m 55 now and, whilst my best time remains at 2 hours, 145 minutes, I think it’s time, if I survive this weekend, to hang up my runners.”