Trinity College Dublin instigated a High Court action against “Trinity English School”, a Dublin English-language school for using the word “Trinity” in its school name. The University is seeking an injunction against Trinity English School, currently located on South Frederick Street, Dublin 2, due to the fact that it is using its trademark name “Trinity”, claiming that it infringes the college’s intellectual property rights. The legal actions were taken on February 6th. Since then, the majority of references to “Trinity English School” have been replaced by “The English School” on the school’s website.
The defendant is known as Derren Hogarty, who Companies Office records display is a direction of the first Learn English in Dublin. In a statement, Trinity College, which is represented by Mason Hayes & Curran solicitors, said it discovered that an English language school in Dublin city had been advertising itself as Trinity English School. “As the college is the sole owner of the registered trademark ‘Trinity’ in Ireland for the provision of educational services, this is an infringement of the college’s intellectual property rights,” they said.
“The college therefore had no choice other than to issue trademark infringement proceedings in order to protect its name, reputation and to avoid confusion among members of the public.” The school had a Twitter account set up under the name “Trinity Language School”, which carried a link to trinityenglishschool.com. However, it now redirects to theenglishschooldublin.com. A Spanish student paid the school €720 for a four-week course, 16 hours of classes per week, only to arrive in Dublin this February to discover it was based in an office on Magennis Place, off PearseStreet, and not at 27 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, as the website had advertised. She has since sought help from the Irish Council of International Students (ICOS).
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