Merseyside Businessman Challenging Liverpool Over Trademark

A local businessman has
launched a bid to overturn
Liverpool FC's trademarking of
the Liver Bird.
Alfie Hincks is challenging the
club's decision to register the
mythical bird - also a symbol of
the city - in a bid to clamp down
on counterfeit merchandise and
has compiled a dossier of over
100 pages to underline why it
should not be privatised.
Mr Hincks is a Fazakerley
resident who runs a maritime
trading company and is taking
his bid to see the decison
overturned to the Trade Marks
and Designs Registration Office
of the European Union
(TMDREU), who granted the
trade mark.
He said: ''The Liver Bird is
used by a whole array of
companies, shops, community
groups and schools.
''It is in common use and
belongs to the people of
Liverpool, and has done since
the city was given its coat of
arms in 1797.
''No one should be allowed
to privatise it.
Liverpool's trademark is valid
until 2020 but Mr Hincks'
planned application, which will
cost him €700 to lodge, could
see the agreement that covers
any use of the Liver Bird on
various merchandise from
clothing and replica kits to
keyrings reversed.
Last year, Everton fan Brian
Gould, 58, was granted
marketing rights to the term
'the Peoples' Club' after proving
that he was the first to use the
phrase, coined by Blues
manager David Moyes upon his
arrival at Goodison Park in
March 2002.