Letter: Conran's Aurora

Sir: As is our usual practice, we consulted our trademark agents about several proposed names for Aurora and our other restaurants in the Great Eastern Hotel ("A tip for Terence Conran: Keep your hands off my restaurant's name", 15 December). Our clear advice is that we are able to use the name Aurora.

It is our normal policy to register our restaurant names as trademarks, in order to protect ourselves against people who may wish to use these names to take advantage of our reputation.

At the time of choosing the name Aurora we were aware of the existence of other restaurants of the same name, but were satisfied that the size and nature of our operation was sufficiently different to avoid confusion being caused. Until reading your newspaper we had no idea that our customers were making bookings in error in either Catherine Street or Lexington Street, and whilst we regret the fact that some initial confusion appears to have arisen, we are confident that all the Auroras can operate and be seen as distinct independent businesses.

We do not intend to use our trademark to ask the existing Auroras to close down or change their name - even if we wanted to, it is most unlikely that we would be able to do so.

TERENCE CONRAN

London SE1