HARRIS Tweed bosses have taken legal action against a rock band and sellers of mobile phone covers to protect "the magic" of the brand.
The Harris Tweed Authoirity (HTA) recently settled a dispute with popular high street chain TK Maxx after the retailer mis-labelled jackets only partly made from the material.
Now it has emerged they have also taken action against a South African rock band who called themselves Harris Tweed, a rival who called their product Harry's Tweed and even someone who sold mobile phone covers called Harris Tweet.
Colin Hulme, adviser to the HTA and a lawyer with commercial law firm Burness Paull, said: "We have just had sales of one million metres of Harris Tweed in the last year, which is tremendous.
"Because of that popularity people want to jump on it and take what they can from the brand.
"We have had a wide range of people mimicking it. We have had Harry's Tweed, with Harry spelt like Prince Harry. We have had somebody selling phone covers under the brand Harris Tweet, through a Twitter site.
"There was a band in South Africa who called themselves Harris Tweed. They had some Scottish connections and they considered it a kind reference to it but we didn't like it because it dilutes the brand.
"Anyone who takes it and uses the brand that isn't associated with our product is a dilution."
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