November 2008
Liverpool Caught Red Handed Attempting to Steal the City Crest
Liverpool Football Club may no longer be the most popular club in Liverpool after the public uproar in response to its attempts to register the city’s symbol, the Liverbird, as a UK trade mark. The Liverbird features as an element in a number of logo marks which the club has registered over the years including its famous “You’ll Never Walk Alone” badge.
According to the details found at the UK IPO, the trade mark was filed on 12 June 2008 and successfully proceeded through the Examination rounds before being advertised on 22 August 2008. Once the mark was advertised it came to the attention of Liverpool city council who immediately sought legal advice to oppose the application. The council also turned to the media for support, with Deputy council leader Cllr Flo Clucas criticising the club’s American owners for attempting to “steal” the city’s iconic crest for commercial gain. Speaking to the Liverpool Daily Post the councilor said:
“The Liverbird belongs to the whole city: it cannot be bought and sold for private profit”.
In response Liverpool has claimed that it is only seeking to register the bird as it appears on its crest to assist its fight against counterfeiters and sellers of replica kits. The club claims that it loses millions every year in unlawful sales. In addition the club claims that it does not wish to prevent the legitimate use of the city’s symbol by other local businesses and charities.
Despite this there are concerns that hundreds of other organisations including charities, voluntary groups and sports clubs would be prevented from using the mark if the registration was granted since Liverpool would be able to prevent the use of identical and similar marks in relation to the goods and services covered by the application, including a range of household, clothing, paper and metal goods.
Briffa Comment
It is unclear on what grounds the council will oppose the application.
The council may be able to claim prior unregistered rights if they have been using the mark before Liverpool FC started using it. The bird featured on the corporate seal of the city dating from the 1350s. As such the council may have been using the symbol for hundreds of years before Liverpool FC were even formed in 1892.
Finally the council could rely on absolute grounds to oppose the application on the basis that the mark is a) devoid of distinctive character (in that it features an every day symbol of Liverpool), b) descriptive (in that it indicates the geographic origin of where the goods and services are coming from being Liverpool) and c) customary (in that it is used by many other organisations in Liverpool including presumably Liverpool city council).
The UK IPO will also probably be in a very difficult position given the local public pressure to reject the application.
Meanwhile if Liverpool does need to continue their legitimate fight against counterfeiters they can still rely on passing off. Although this may not be ideal, especially if there are attempting to prevent imports from the Far East.
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