The legal action against the Ritz Ballroom has been officially withdrawn. This outcome confirms that our local institution will retain its name and identity. Thank you for your commitment to protecting this historic venue.
May 23, 2017
Final supporters
The Ritz Ballroom is a small music and dance venue in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Despite having "Ritz" in its name for 80 years it has been threatened with legal action by The Ritz Hotel in London if it doesn't change its name and hand over rights to the website and social media domain names. It is not a hotel, is not a threat to the hotel's business and is over 200 miles away. Even it's website: www.liveattheritz.com is clearly not easily confused with the hotel's website.
They cannot afford to change the name and all the re-branding that goes with it. This is purely a case of bullying and should not be allowed to happen.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and don't forget to share it on your Facebook and Twitter pages so we can show the hotel how ridiculous their actions are.
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
February 24, 2017
February 24, 2017
The momentum surrounding our effort to preserve the identity of the Ritz Ballroom is encouraging. We are approaching 2,500 signatures and need a final surge of activity to demonstrate the scale of local objection to this legal pressure. Please distribute this petition through your social networks today to ensure our position remains clear to the hotel management.
February 24, 2017
The petition has reached one thousand signatures. This milestone confirms that many recognize the importance of preserving the heritage of the Brighouse Ritz.
Reached 1,000 supporters
February 22, 2017
Reached 100 supporters
February 22, 2017
1,697 Comments
Very sad to to think a famous hotel in London feels treated by a local dance hall in brighouse West Yorkshire I travel from the Isle of Man to attend some of the northern soul events at the ritz brighouse which it's famous for
As usual, the little people get bullied and the lawyers get richer. Hopefully common sense will prevail. They are over 200 miles apart, one is a hotel and one is a ballroom, how can the activities of one possibly affect the other? Total nonsense.
Are they going to go after Ritz crackers. this is the sort of company the ritz London is - copied from the bbc web site "London's high-end Ritz hotel has not paid any corporation tax in the 17 years". Obviously not a nice company to deal with.
The London Ritz want to use the domain name live@theritz but they can't......it's already been legally bought by the Brighouse Ritz. So now they're using their muscle to put Brighouse Ritz out of business...... Case of big guy bullying little guy methinks!!
The Brighouse Ritz Ballroom has been around for many many years, and "The Ritz" Ballrooms, generally, have been around in the North for many many years as well, and were originally part of the Mecca group. This is a disgusting attempt at bullying.
I led the resident band here for a while when Ken Naylor was in charge.
Unbloody believable ,bullying bigtime
Share Petition
Don't stop at signing, share the petition link with friends to multiply our impact
Copy link or share directly
The legal action against the Ritz Ballroom has been officially withdrawn. This outcome confirms that our local institution will retain its name and identity. Thank you for your commitment to protecting this historic venue.
May 23, 2017
Final supporters
The Ritz Ballroom is a small music and dance venue in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Despite having "Ritz" in its name for 80 years it has been threatened with legal action by The Ritz Hotel in London if it doesn't change its name and hand over rights to the website and social media domain names. It is not a hotel, is not a threat to the hotel's business and is over 200 miles away. Even it's website: www.liveattheritz.com is clearly not easily confused with the hotel's website.
They cannot afford to change the name and all the re-branding that goes with it. This is purely a case of bullying and should not be allowed to happen.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and don't forget to share it on your Facebook and Twitter pages so we can show the hotel how ridiculous their actions are.
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
February 24, 2017
February 24, 2017
The momentum surrounding our effort to preserve the identity of the Ritz Ballroom is encouraging. We are approaching 2,500 signatures and need a final surge of activity to demonstrate the scale of local objection to this legal pressure. Please distribute this petition through your social networks today to ensure our position remains clear to the hotel management.
February 24, 2017
The petition has reached one thousand signatures. This milestone confirms that many recognize the importance of preserving the heritage of the Brighouse Ritz.
Reached 1,000 supporters
February 22, 2017
Reached 100 supporters
February 22, 2017
1,697 Comments
It's a big enough world for two very different Ritz buildings to run happily & successfully providing very different services at opposite ends of the country - people just need to use common sense and the right postcode & everyone will be happy!!
Very sad to to think a famous hotel in London feels treated by a local dance hall in brighouse West Yorkshire I travel from the Isle of Man to attend some of the northern soul events at the ritz brighouse which it's famous for
As usual, the little people get bullied and the lawyers get richer. Hopefully common sense will prevail. They are over 200 miles apart, one is a hotel and one is a ballroom, how can the activities of one possibly affect the other? Total nonsense.
Are they going to go after Ritz crackers. this is the sort of company the ritz London is - copied from the bbc web site "London's high-end Ritz hotel has not paid any corporation tax in the 17 years". Obviously not a nice company to deal with.
The London Ritz want to use the domain name live@theritz but they can't......it's already been legally bought by the Brighouse Ritz. So now they're using their muscle to put Brighouse Ritz out of business...... Case of big guy bullying little guy methinks!!
The Brighouse Ritz Ballroom has been around for many many years, and "The Ritz" Ballrooms, generally, have been around in the North for many many years as well, and were originally part of the Mecca group. This is a disgusting attempt at bullying.
I led the resident band here for a while when Ken Naylor was in charge.
Unbloody believable ,bullying bigtime
Share Petition
Don't stop at signing, share the petition link with friends to multiply our impact
Petitions like this
Other petitions you might want to support
Scan to share
Anyone who scans this can sign the petition.
It's a big enough world for two very different Ritz buildings to run happily & successfully providing very different services at opposite ends of the country - people just need to use common sense and the right postcode & everyone will be happy!!