Liverpool’s controversial bid to trademark the word’Liverpool’ has been reversed by the government’s Intellectual Property Office.
The Premier League club insisted their goal was to safeguard themselves and had hoped to trademark the title of the city when used in the context of football products and services.
But, after accepting the conclusion of the IPO, the club’s chief executive Peter Moore admitted that they had underestimated the amount of opposition from independent dealers within town, also soccer clubs and Liverpool City Council.
The club said in a statement:”Liverpool Football Club could confirm its application to trademark the word’Liverpool’ from the context of soccer services and products has been unsuccessful.
“The club takes the decision that has been accepted by the Intellectual Property Office, due mostly to what the official conclusion cites as’the geographical significance’ of Liverpool as a town compared to set names that have been trademarked by other football clubs in the united kingdom.
“We shall, however, continue to aggressively pursue these large-scale operations that seek to illegally exploit our intellectual property and would urge that the relevant authorities to take decisive action against these unlawful action wherever it is.”
Moore explained the intentions of the club had been sincere but they’d misunderstood the implications the trademarking would have had in the community.
“We underestimated the response for this,” Moore told the Liverpool Echo. “We had, in very good faith, seemed at what we were seeing on a global basis and particularly stuff that has been coming in the UK.
“We felt obliged to protect the soccer club and’d looked in other similar situations for clubs that had trademarked their place names in a football context, there are numerous examples.
“We believed that on behalf of our team we needed to do that, but I think that it’s fair to say we underestimated the psychological response to it and that’s our bad.”
Moore said the team had met to explain their aims.
“There wasn’t a deliberate actions to slip it through,” he added. “We filed and got on with our company and clearly as matters unfolded the response was fairly quick and we instantly engaged with the individual retailers and the local soccer clubs and met together.
“(We) assured them that this was not geared toward them and offered them legal protections if we had been effective.”
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson tweeted:”LFC is a international manufacturer and plays a huge role in showcasing our town around the world.
“We’ve got a strong relationship with Peter and his team and the club’s importance to the future of the city is without difficulty. We will always work collectively for those of Liverpool.”
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