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The judge concluded that Desmond could not use the "Mail" name on its own because of the risk of confusion.

The high court judge Mr Justice Laddie said that The Evening Mail or London Evening Mail could well be thought of as an evening version of either the Daily Mail or The Mail on Sunday.

"Considering first the use of the title Evening Mail, it appears to me that the factors which point towards confusion outweigh those that point away," Justice Laddie said.

"In my view there is a similar likelihood of confusion if the defendants use either the Evening Mail or the London Evening Mail as the title of their newspaper. There will be a natural tendency to shorten such names to The Mail and it follows that there is a significant risk that members of the public would do that."

The news was welcomed by Associated Newspapers a spokesman for which said that the case was about a threat to the core Mail brand.

"Associated Newspapers could not contemplate allowing its goodwill and reputation to be hijacked by a rival publisher. We regard this as a transparent attempt by Express Newspapers to piggy-back off the Mail name.

"The judgement means that Mr Desmond cannot use the 'Mail' name as the title of any London newspapers. We are delighted with the judge's ruling and the fact that he has enforced the Mail group's trademarks and accepted that there would have been confusion and damage to the Mail brand."

In response to the judgment, Express Newspapers says it plans to appeal the parts of the ruling that went in Associated's favour.

Paul Ashford, the editorial director for Express Newspapers, said: "We have many options for names but we fought this case as part of a crusade to break Associated's stranglehold on printed media within the London area."

He added: "We are determined that Londoners should have a choice. This may be our Dunkirk but we will get to Berlin and will not stop until we have liberated London from this tyrannical monopoly. Our plans to launch a new evening newspaper in London will continue."

However, the judge rejected any suggestion Associated would lose advertising revenue if Desmond were allowed to used any form of the "Mail" name.

Justice Laddie said: "Furthermore, I reject the suggestion made by the claimant that there will be direct loss of advertising revenue caused by advertisers placing advertisements in the defendant's newspaper believing it to be the claimant's. Anyone wishing to place an advertisement will need to find out the cost and terms of doing so and will need to have a contact telephone or fax number. All of those will be found by looking in the newspaper in which the advertisement is to be placed."

The judge agreed with Associated that a campaign run by the Evening Mail if it launched could upset elements of the public and could, because of confusion, result in customers or advertisers boycotting the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday.

The judge took into result the character of the newspapers and the fact that Desmond's Express titles carry ads for adult chatlines and massage parlours, while Associated's Mail titles do not and would not carry these.

"I do not think it is fanciful to suggest, as the claimant does, that a strident campaign run by the Evening Mail, which might upset a part of the public, could result in customers or advertisers boycotting the claimant's titles.

"Furthermore, the newspapers in the defendant's stable include advertisements for adult chat-lines and massage parlours. Mr Ashford was not in a position to say whether the Evening Mail would or would not do the same. I was told that that sort of advertising material would not be accepted for inclusion in either of the claimant's Mail newspapers and there was no wish to be associated with such material.

The judge said that the personality of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday was likely to play a significant part in its attraction to many readers.

"The above examples suggest that confusion between them and the Evening Mail may result in the claimant losing some of the control it has over that personality," Justice Laddie said.

The launch of the title has been talked of now since early February but still seems no closer to launching, despite having appointed Nick Ferrari, the former Sun journalist and LBC 97.3FM talk radio host, as editor earlier this year.

Brand Republic reported from sources in November that Express Newspapers planned to call its new title the Evening Mail or London Evening Mail. The latter is the only option Desmond is now left with unless he goes for something quite different.

Earlier in the case, Desmond denied that a name has been decided on for the new title and is arguing that Associated has no trademark rights over the name "The Mail".

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