A High Court judge has ruled in favour of Flowerbx Ltd, the luxury florist behind flower displays for Victoria Beckham and other high-profile clients, in a trademark dispute with a rival firm trading under a near-identical name. Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, who founded Flowerbx in 2015 after leaving senior roles at Gucci and Tom Ford, accused Lukasz Gajewski's company, Flowers Box London Ltd, of breaching her registered trademark and unfairly trading on her business's reputation. The case matters because it underlines how easily customer confusion can arise between similarly named businesses, and reinforces the legal protection afforded to distinctive brand names built up over years of trading.

Bromberg Hawkings registered the Flowerbx trademark in 2017, two years before Gajewski set up his rival firm, and says she only became aware of the clash in 2023 when a bus driver told her he had bought flowers from her, having in fact used the competing service. Recorder Amanda Michaels ruled that Gajewski's use of "Flowers Box" or "Flowers Box London" infringed the trademark and had let his business unfairly profit from Flowerbx's hard-won reputation. Flowerbx, whose clients include Julianne Moore, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Jimmy Choo, turned over more than £4million last year and has provided arrangements for events including Annabel's nightclub and the Beckhams' 50th birthday celebrations.