Members of Denmark’s Orsted family are pursuing a lawsuit against Orsted — the world’s biggest offshore wind developer.
Last year, the outfit formerly known as Danish Oil & Natural Gas (Dong) changed its name to honour Danish scientist Hans Christian Orsted. The switch reflected the fact that the company had abandoned its origins, divesting its hydrocarbons business in favour of renewables, and the old name “is no longer who we are”.
However, direct descendants of the 19th-century physicist, chemist and philosopher maintain that using Orsted’s surname is a violation of the Danish Companies Act.
Filings to launch the proceedings are under way in the Maritime and Commercial High Court in Copenhagen, according to Danish newspaper Berlingske.
The main media face behind the legal complaint is Soren Peter Orsted, the great, great, great grandson of the man in question.
Far from being pleased, Soren Peter Orsted told the paper the name change is a “provocation” and “an insult” because, he said, his ancestor kept his distance from commercial pursuits.
Hans Christian Orsted (1777-1851) is a bit of a national icon. He founded a number of Danish institutions and is credited with coining the term “thought experiment”. His face was even on the Danish 100-krone bill for 20 years.
However, his achievement that relates most to the company was his discovery of electromagnetism in 1820.
Dong started life in 1972 in fossil fuels and has been a major employer of offshore vessels for decades, but its move into offshore wind meant the old name had become unwanted baggage, and Hans Christian Orsted’s work with electromagnetism made his name a good fit.
Orsted claims it has every right to use the name and checked the matter thoroughly before making the switch. “We have obtained registration of the trademark throughout the EU according to the applicable rules and without objections,” communications manager Martin Barlebo told Berlingske.
“Such registrations cannot be ignored without clear national legal basis, and in Denmark, under long-term and established practice, it is only allowed to block a family name for trademark protection if there are names carried by less than 30 persons in the country, but today there are approximately 1,200 carriers of the Orsted name.”
However, Soren Peter Orsted maintains that the legal limit for name protection is 2,000 carriers.
Law professors specialising in intellectual property rights tell Berlingske there is no real precedent for this specific matter — a fight over the difference between 1,200 and 2,000 carriers.
Orsted’s offshore wind projects supply energy to 9.5 million people. Majority-owned by the Danish government, it is the country’s ninth-largest company by turnover, with last year’s NOK 57.39bn ($7.3bn) putting it one notch above Danske Bank.
