b'Puttin on the RitzRitz Hotel Ltd v Charles of the Ritz Ltd and anotherIn 1898 Csar Ritz and French chef Auguste Escoffier openedbirthday, his mother anxiously told him, Jim Dwyer is looking the now iconic Ritz Paris hotel. According to Ritz, the hotelfor you. He wants you to drive to the Ritz hotel in Paris and offered all the refinement that a prince could desire in hisstart work immediately.own home. It quickly became renowned for its extravagance, first-class service and cuisine, and was one of the first hotels inRose promptly headed to Paris, stopping along the way to Europe to offer electricity, telephones and ensuite bathrooms.buy a cheap suit, and checked into the Ritza far cry from his backpacker lodgings a week earlier. The suit didnt fit, Csar was succeeded by his son Charles Ritz. When CharlesRose remembers. But it didnt matter. I was twenty-four, died in 1976 the hotel fell into disrepair. It was acquiredin Paris for work, staying at the Ritz and I wore my bad suit three years later for US$30 million by Egyptian businessmanfeeling like a million dollars. David Studdy, another Allens Mohamed Al-Fayed, who spent US$250 million on a completeparalegal also holidaying in Europe, received a similar request renovation. Al-Fayeds ambition for the Ritz went beyond hotelto head to Paris. The two spent a fortnight working through accommodationhis plan was to extend the prestigiousenormous piles of documents, marvelling at their good name to a suite of products including perfumes, cosmeticsfortune to do so in such luxurious surrounds. and travel goods. Back in Sydney, Dwyers team was busy arranging for In 1985 the general counsel of the Ritz Paris asked Allen Allenalmost 400 witnesses to appear in court. They had to & Hemsley to act for the hotel in a major trade mark disputedemonstrate the international reputation of the Ritz Paris to stop companies using the mark Ritz on their products. Thisand association of the Ritz brand with the Paris hotel. They included Charles of the Ritz owned by the Revlon cosmeticsalso had to prove the Charles of the Ritz trade mark had group. Revlon had five registered trade marks in Australianot been used in the past three years and the Ritz Paris had which prevented the Ritz Paris from registering its own tradethe right to request its removal. marks. While Revlon claimed it had used the Charles of the Ritz name on perfume and cosmetics for sixty years, noThirty trade mark disputes were initiated around the products bearing that brand had been seen on a shelf in anworld on behalf of the Ritz ParisAllen Allen & Hemsley Australian store for more than three years. Partner Jim Dwyercoordinated twelve in the Asia-Pacific region. The evidence handled this dispute. collected in New South Wales was so compelling that in 1987 it became the first of the trade mark disputes to be heard.At the time, twenty-four-year-old paralegal Michael Rose (later to become managing partner) was backpacking aroundThe challenge of organising so many witnesses was made Spain, making the most of a European holiday before startingeasier for Dwyer by the firms first mobile phone. It was a work as a solicitor at the firm. When he called home on hiscumbersome brick of a thing, says Dwyer, with a battery 180'