The owners of the multibillion-pound James Bond franchise are embroiled in a fight to keep control of the super spy’s name, after a Dubai-based property developer filed claims in the UK and Europe that they are not using the trademark across a range of goods and services.

The Austrian businessman Josef Kleindienst, who is building a $5bn luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six human-made islands just off the coast of Dubai, has filed a slew of what are known officially as “cancellation actions based on non-use” targeting the James Bond name.

Under UK and EU law, if a name is trademarked against certain goods and services but the owner does not commercially exploit it in these areas for a period of at least five years then a challenge to revoke ownership of the name can be made.

“He is challenging a number of UK and European Union trademark registrations for James Bond,” said Mark Caddle, a partner and patent attorney at European intellectual property firm Withers & Rogers. “The basis of the European Union filings is that James Bond has not been used for the goods and services it protects, and that is likely to be the same basis of the filings in the UK.”

The trademark protection of multiple versions of the super spy’s name are subject to the challenge, including: James Bond Special Agent 007, James Bond 007, James Bond, James Bond: World of Espionage and the famous “Bond, James Bond” saying.

The challenge is against the failure to use the James Bond name across a broad range of “classes” of goods and services. These include “models of vehicles”, “computer programmes and electronic comic books”, “electronic publishing” and design, encompassing uses such as restaurants, cocktail lounge services and accommodation.

The claims were made by Kleindienst, founder of the Kleindienst Group which claims to be the largest European property developer in the United Arab Emirates.

A spokesperson for Kleindienst confirmed that the businessman has plans to utilise the Bond name if he wins his challenge, and that an “announcement is coming soon”.

The EU cancellation actions were filed on 27 January. While no date is provided for the timing of the filing of the UK actions, they are also likely to have been made recently as the cases are listed as “awaiting defence”.

The James Bond trademarks are officially registered to US-based company Danjaq, which controls the rights to worldwide traditional James Bond merchandising in conjunction with Eon.

Eon, the UK-based production company responsible for turning Ian Fleming’s James Bond into one of the most successful film franchises in history, is run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, who are fiercely protective of the intellectual property rights associated with 007.

Danjaq also co-owns the copyright to the existing James Bond films, along with MGM Studios, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5bn in 2021 – the same year the last outing of the franchise, No Time to Die, hit cinemas.

“Following the date of the filing of the cancellations Danjaq has two months to submit their defence,” says Caddle. “If Danjaq want to keep these alive they will need to engage in a trademark office action to show that they have used James Bond in the areas being challenged in the last five years.”

James Bond is also likely to be trademarked in the United Arab Emirates, where Kleindienst operates his property business and where the filings list his residence as a hotel, but the trademark office there is not readily publicly accessible to be able to ascertain whether similar cancellation claims have been made.

“[Kleindienst] appears to be a property developer based in Dubai so it is hard to know what he is up to with Bond in the UK and Europe,” said Caddle. “He must have some motive.

“He might be trying to clear the path for his own trademark application for Bond, that is the typical route, but he hasn’t lodged one as yet. In any case, Danjaq would certainly counter-challenge. James Bond is still well used and loved. I don’t think that route would be straightforward for him [even if he were to win].”

Eon and Danjaq were contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, the ongoing saga of who will replace Daniel Craig as the next James Bond and when the next film will be announced rumbles on. More than three years on from his final appearance as 007, fans are no closer to knowing who his replacement will be.

Articles have suggested that Broccoli, who along with Wilson maintains strict control over the film franchise and who plays Bond, did not hit it off with Amazon executives after the deal to buy MGM.

In an interview with the Guardian last year, Jennifer Salke, the global head of Amazon MGM Studios, played down reports she got on the wrong side of Broccoli for raising the idea of a Bond TV series.

“We have a good and close relationship with Eon and Barbara and Michael,” said Salke. “We are not looking to disrupt the way those wonderful films are made. For us, we are taking their lead. The global audience will be patient. We don’t want too much time between films, but we are not concerned at this point.”