Get it up ye Steve Dale!
Trademark result
In July 2020, Steven Dale applied to the UK Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”) to register a trade mark containing the crest of Bury Football Club and which includes the town of Bury’s coat of arms, as below:(the “Trade Mark”).
It is important to note that the Trade Mark had not previously been registered by Bury FC and Mr Dale sought to register the Trade Mark personally, in his own name. This meant that if his application were successful he, and not Bury FC or Bury Council, would be the registered owner of the above Trade Mark.
Mr Dale’s application became a matter of public record in September 2020 and was communicated to the wider public in November 2020.
Bury AFC therefore asked its members whether they wanted to pursue legal action to oppose Mr Dale’s application to register the Trade Mark. Our membership is primarily made up of fans of Bury FC, Bury AFC and residents of Bury. Over 99% of the membership overwhelmingly voted to formally oppose Mr Dale’s application to register the Trade Mark. Members can view the original article here.
Bury AFC therefore contacted other stakeholders, such as Forever Bury and Bury Council. Bury Council responded giving their support to Bury AFC opposing Mr Dale’s application.
Given the support of the membership and the Council, we instructed specialist sport and intellectual property lawyers who, due to their connection to Bury as fans and residents, offered their services at a substantially discounted rate.
Our legal team filed a formal opposition to Mr Dale's application. It was ultimately decided by the tribunal of the IPO, having considered submissions filed on our behalf that the opposition should succeed and Mr Dale’s application to register the Trade Mark should fail. This decision was communicated to us and Mr Dale last week.
This result represents a significant victory for all Bury fans and the town of Bury as its means that the crest and coat of arms will not be owned by Mr Dale.
We would like to thank Bury Council for their support of our opposition as well as our solicitor David Seligman, his team at Brandsmiths and barrister Charlotte Blythe of Hogarth Chambers.