Would you apple and eve it? Food chain Dishoom in legal battle over naming curries ‘Ruby Murray’
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
For anyone who has ever felt a little Hank Marvin after a few too many King Lears, a Ruby Murray is invariably the only remedy.
But, the cockney rhyming slang for the nation’s beloved Indian curry is once again at the centre of a legal battle over the rights to the Belfast singer’s name to denote spicy food.
The fashionable food chain Dishoom has lodged legal papers with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the government body overseeing trademarks, to try to strip a London businessman from owning exclusive rights to use Ruby Murray to describe curry.
On May 15, the company’s lawyers applied to revoke a registration secured five years ago by Tariq Aziz to use the 1950’s singer’s name for all things curry related.
Dishoom, which has restaurants in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham , has been using the female singer’s name as a heading for curries on its menu, as well as serving their own “Chicken Ruby”.
The restaurant chain, which recreates Irani cafes once common in Bombay, claims Mr Aziz has not used the name Ruby Murray in a commercial way, so the registration should be revoked.
A Dishoom spokeswoman said: “A third party has a trademark registration for Ruby Murray, and we don’t believe that they have ever used it.
“There is a principle of “use or lose it” in trademark law and we have therefore asked the UK IPO to remove the Ruby Murray mark from the register.
“Dishoom is not seeking to apply to register Ruby Murray in its own name; it wishes to remove the “monopoly” on the use of Ruby Murray so it can be used freely by anyone when referring to curry.”
In 2019, Mr Aziz successfully registered Ruby Murray as a food and drinks trademark. The following year, the company director set up Murray Ruby Limited, described on Companies House as “take away food shops and mobile food stands”. Mr Aziz filed his latest accounts for that company in January 2024 showing it was trading.
Mr Aziz, who remains the owner of the trademark, failed to respond to a request for comment.
An IPO spokesperson said: “An application to revoke the trade mark registration on the grounds that it has never been used was filed on May 15. The registered owner has until July 15 to indicate whether they will offer a defence. If they fail to do so, the trade mark will be revoked and removed from the register. Any defence offered will be considered before a decision is made.”
When Mr Aziz obtained the trademark, Tim Murray, the son of the singer who died in 1996, was angry that the IPO had not contacted his mother’s family before granting rights to her name.
At the time, he said: “Everyone knows that Ruby Murray is cockney rhyming slang for curry – it is part of our language and heritage.
“A government body should not be allowed to grant a single businessman the sole rights to use her name for financial gain. We will take legal advice. But, first we will send a letter of objection to the IPO which I hope will make them realise their mistake and correct the error.”
Fears Mr Aziz’s trademark might have prevented other curry restaurants from using the name Ruby Murray appear not to have been borne out. An internet search of the name suggests a number of companies are using the phrase for curry restaurants.
Blue plaque
In 2019, a blue plaque was unveiled in Belfast to mark where Ruby Murray, who rose to fame with her Softly, Softly hit song, was born and brought up.
She is credited with making pop chart history in 1955 by having five hits in the Top Twenty in a single week.
Her life was chronicled in the play Ruby! By Michael Cameron which was performed at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in 2019.
The phrase “have a ruby” was used repeatedly by Del Boy in the BBC TV comedy Only Fools and Horses.
