It is game set and match to a local car company this week after the All England Lawn Tennis Club backed down over a demand that it drop the name Wimbledon and alter its logo.
The club's branding - a distinctive circular purple, green and white logo featuring tennis rackets, a ball and the words The Championships - Wimbledon - is a global marketing phenomenon worth millions.
The club began trademarking elements of the logo, including the word Wimbledon after counterfeit goods started to be sold along the Southfields stretch leading up to Centre Court about 10 years ago.
But noone expected the club to try and enforce it against local organisations many of whom, including Merton Council, use the colours green, purple and white which have been associated with the area since they were adopted by Wimbledon's militant suffragette branch of the Women's Social & Political Union in 1908.
Merton Council's logo (left) and a WSPU badge using the distinctive purple, green and white colour combination
So it came as a huge shock when Wimbledon Specialist Cars (WSC) in Bushey Road received a letter earlier this month from AELTC's lawyers ordering them to "immediately cease and desist" from using their "confusingly similar" logo or face legal action.
It was given just two weeks to remove the word Wimbledon and/or the purple and green from any branding, or face legal action.
The company which has previously lent a Range Rover to Maria Sharapova, has used a logo featuring the company name surrounded by a purple and green coin since 2009, and updated it five months ago.
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Tennis champ Maria Sharapova has previously borrowed a Range Rover from Wimbledon Specialist Cars
Zak Miah, marketing excutive at WSC, said: "Apparently the word Wimbledon and any association with the colour green isn't allowed. Locally there's 10 companies doing the same thing."
But after the Wimbledon Guardian contacted the AELTC this week, the tennis giant withdrew the complaint, describing it as a "misunderstanding".
Johnny Perkins, spokesman for AELTC said: "It's not our intention and never has been to interfere with the use of the word and choice of Wimbledon from a local point of view - anything to do with Wimbledon Village, Wimbledon town centre or with other businesses using the word in an authentic context.
"If the use of the word Wimbledon with our colours is in a context where it creates an idea, usually inadvertently, that there's an official connection [with the AELTC], that's where we would start to have discussions with companies to explain the situation, but in this case it's a simple misunderstanding."
'They have not got a case against us': Wimbledon Specialist Cars in Bushey Road
Speaking on Tuesday, Kevin Edwards, director of WSC, said "We have had an apology from them and they have said they have got no case against us. I imagine there are businesses who use their logo."
He said he was happy with their apology, adding: "We are just a local business and they are a big company but they don't want any bad publicity either."
Helen Clark Bell, chief executive of Wimbledon town centre's business improvement district Love Wimbledon, which uses the word 'Wimbledon' and colour purple in its own logo, said she was not aware of any other companies receiving similar complaints from AELTC.
Got an opinion? Let us know at letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk or visit www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/letters
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