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Why The Trademark?

StigStig
edited March 2008 in General Charlton
My son asked me a question whilst looking at the giant club badge on the back of the Covered End the other week. Why do we have the silly little TM mark on our badge? I replied that it was probably just a commercial thing; a way to tell others not to copy it.

Afterwards, when I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t remember ever seeing another club badge with such a symbol on it. This morning I did a bit of research. I looked up the websites of every other club in the Championship plus Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd. I figured that if these four commercial giants didn’t bother with it, it probably wasn’t worth bothering with.

What did I find? Of all the clubs I investigated none (except us) have a trademark symbol as part of their badge. Just two, Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday place an R sign near the badge, but this doesn’t seem to be done on any consistent basis.

So my questions to you. Does anyone know of a historical reason why our club would be alone in this? Does anyone else feel bothered by this inclusion on our badge?

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    Off_itOff_it
    Back in the 1970's a French rugby club tried to use the same sword in hand logo for their promotional literature. It all got a bit messy and legal proceedings were infracted, so I guess the club have been a bit touchy about it ever since.
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    guinnessaddickguinnessaddick
    Does this mean anyone with a tattoo of the Charlton badge could be sued for copyright? ;-)
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    T_C_ET_C_E
    Thats something thats puzzled me as well, Its well documented that lots of supporters on here, myself included have the club badge tattoo, but I asked Footjoy to put the badge on a pair of custom made golf shoes and was told they couldnt do it for legal reasons?? It got be something to do with copyright surely but as you say its not on any of the badges going back a few years, Mr Irving its over to you ;)
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    StigStig
    There's a good article here about our badge but it doesn't explain about the trademark. The French Rugby business seems a good justification though. The irony is that many other websites, including Sky and the BBC use a version of the badge without the trademark

    http://www.footballcrests.com/clubs/charlton-athletic-fc
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