Premier League Bullies

[Benny]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24940529

So, background, this is my club (as in I play for them, not own them) and they've been called Fleet Spurs since 1951, set up in tribute to the mighty Spurs at the time. We've since played their own legends team for charity and generally do ok, but we are a small club with all the trappings of a small club, high bills, contributions from players etc. Now, the big boys want their logo back, understandably, it was part of a competition that the kids side did years ago and is clearly a copy....but it's not harming anyone, they must have noticed when they played us and really?

Sigh* I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't support Spurs!!

[suicidal_monkey]

I suppose there's not much chance of them contributing to the redesign, despite the history?

[smilodon]

It would probably set a precedent, which it seems is what Tottenham are worried about. I'm sure they couldn't care less about Fleets use of their emblem. It's obviously about the defence that counterfeiters would use, in that it was OK for Fleet so why not them. It's still a shame.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[Benny]

Aye, I don't disagree with the principle, but the nice thing to do would be say "Excuse me fellas, would you mind changing it, it's a bit cheeky, here's a few quid to your charity/kit to help you out, we understand that it's costly to a donation run club. Thanks for the tribute, come on you spurs"

Still, it's in the Mail, Metro and all over twitter.....there's still hope they'll send a scout down on Saturday and I'll get picked up

[Penfold]

It's not unreasonable for Tottenham to want to protect their logo and their argument is logical. It's just unfortunate that it's been a long time coming (from original rebranding) and it's affecting an organisation that doesn't have anything duplicitous in mind.

[Lameduck]

About 5 years ago Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the lovable american sports club owners, spent a few quid trying to Trade Mark the Liver Bird Symbol for Liverpool FC, despite the fact that that symbol had been used by Liverpool organisations for over 600 years. They were using the same argument as Spurs.
Liverpool City Council fought this application and provided proof that the 'logo' had been in public use for a long time before Liverpool FC were in existence. It was even a symbol on the Everton badge, the team from which Liverpool FC was created. If I recall correctly, Liverpool were allowed to register 'Their' version of the symbol only.
[h=2][/h]

[Benny]

http://talksport.com/radio/listen-again/1384477200

All fun innit - starts at about 6 minutes.

[Tutonic]

Oh dear.

Spurs could have saved themselves a bit of PR damage, if they had been a bit more subtle. Meet the chairman down the pub, give him a check to cover the cost of the logo change, and I'm sure this would have been sorted without any fuss.

Such a shame they had to go in with the slavering pack of lawyers

It's almost the equivalent of the big media rights holders suing their own customers for promoting their own brands through mashups and remixes. Utter madness.