Toffs lose badge battle in court

Mar 10 2007 By Rebekah Ashby, The Journal

Replica football shirt company Toffs - which spearheaded the tearaway popularity of retro football kits - yesterday lost a High Court trademark battle with a Bristol rival over the classic Brazil badge once worn by Pele.

Mr Justice Mann ruled that the trademarking of the shield logo owned by Gateshead-based Toffs (the Old Fashioned Football Shirt Company) was invalid.

The ruling could now have a knock-on effect on a number of other trademarks Toffs' owner Alan Finch has registered of other classic football team emblems.

It also paves the way for rival Score Draw - and anyone else in the UK - to use the shield which was worn by Brazil's national side for almost 60 years.

Last night the company, which is headquartered on Team Valley, said all it had ever tried to do by trademarking the Confederação Brasileira de Desportos emblem was protect its product, livelihood and workforce. It added that the decision led it to question why it was allowed to trademark the badge in the first place.

Finding in favour of Score Draw, the judge said the use of the badge over the years "had caused it to acquire a familiarity which means it will inevitably be associated, by the relevant public, with the historic Brazilian football teams".

He added: "That, after all, is how Toffs, and Score Draw, manage to sell shirts with it on. I find that on the evidence that use has robbed the badge of its power to be distinctive of trade origin."

He said the badge was not used by Toffs to denote trade origin, but "to give authenticity to the shirts", and that this was confirmed by the company's brochure.

The essential function of a trademark is to exclusively identify the "trade origin", or commercial source, of products or services.

Toffs director Michele Finch said last night: "The CBD badge had been languishing in the dust for 30 years and had never been used in the UK.

"Over the years the CBD badge has meant the creation of manufacturing jobs for our staff and for staff elsewhere in the North-East, and all we have ever wanted to do is to protect them. Toffs is the market leader when it comes to premium quality, authentic retro football shirts for the discerning fan who is passionate about their club's history.

"Score Draw's marketplace is for the fashion-orientated fan who prefers a t-shirt. There are two distinctive marketplaces and now this judgment satisfies both."

Toffs had held the CBD badge trademark for four years and even created the outfit for Pele's waxwork to wear in London's Madame Tussauds.