BBC wins police Tardis case

[Tabitha]

Confused by that title? I was too, so I read the entire article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2352743.stm

The BBC has won a battle to keep control of Dr Who's Tardis after the Metropolitan Police unsuccessfully argued it should own the trade mark of the distinctive image.

The time travelling vessel became the subject of a legal wrangle as the Metropolitan Police fought to gain control of the blue box, which was a familiar sight on the streets of London up until the 1960s.

The police objected to the BBC using the image of the Tardis on comics, T-shirts, videos and other merchandise, something it has done since the 1970s.

But the Metropolitan Police lost its appeal and has been ordered to pay £850, plus legal costs.

The case has been rumbling on since 1996, when the Patent Office originally accepted the Tardis as a BBC trade mark.

Reputation

But the Met claimed it should be trade mark holder of the Tardis, believing it to be commonly known as the police telephone box.

It said in 1953 there were 685 blue police telephone boxes in London, and that the boxes had a considerable reputation among the general public.

The Tardis has been Dr Who's preferred mode of travel for transporting him through time zones since 1963.

But arbitrator Shaun Sherlock remarked that even if the police had built up any reputation, it would have only been in the area of policing and law enforcement and would not have extended into the goods and services which the BBC had applied to use it for.

Mr Sherlock said that the police telephone box had been used by other police forces outside London, so was not exclusive to the Metropolitan Police, and at best it would be described by the public as "street furniture".

"I bear in mind that for most of the period since the police call box was taken out of service, the only sight the public at large would have had of this item of street furniture has been in the TV programme Dr Who, provided by the BBC where it is a Tardis, a fictional time travelling machine with the external appearance of a police box," ruled Mr Sherlock.

Hehe

 

[Dave]

It would seem an odd ruling, but I agree with it. There is a lot of money involved here, and I have lived in London for 17 years and have never seen a Police Box on any street. Anyone under 18 would only have seen a police Box on 'Dr. Who' or 'Dixon of Dock Green', not even on any modern TV cop shows . The Met should have taken out a trade mark earlier if it had had the foresight.

What annoys me is that this is one public body that I pay for (by Taxes) -- the Metropolitan Police -- fighting another public body I pay for (by license fee) -- The BBC -- and the only winners are the lawyers (by £850, plus legal costs).

The same thing happened with Ken Livingston and London Underground, but at least he can say he was elected to fight that case (not by me I might add).

Who asked the BBC and the Met to fight this?

 

[ray gower]

I remember three police boxes in the Smoke that were in place until the late 70's/ early 80's.

One was on the Embankment. One in Hyde Park and I think the third was in Oxford Circus, that one was more of a concrete blockhouse than Doctor Who's svelt like thing.

I also remember the news item on Nationwide that talked about the removal of the last one. Certainly the Met were not thinking of their fame. Merely to get shot to prove it was a thoroughly 'Modern Force'.

 

[Dave]

The BBC are having a lot of fun with this ruling. On the official Dr. Who website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/news/02102501.shtml they say:

Shortly after the ruling, the Metropolitan Police announced plans to bring the Police Box back to the streets of London, presumably in the shape of Grandfather Clock or an Ionic Column.

 

[obcooke]

It seems like a way for the Met Police to raise some money by asking the BBC for a cut of theirs.

Trademark law can be a real kettle of fish. I'm sure its that way on both sides of the pond.

Did you know that, in the US, the word "typewriter" used to be a brand-name? But everyone started calling the machine a typewriter and courts eventually ruled that the word was in "common usage". The name was taken away from the company.

Back in the 1970's Xerox was so successful that everyone referred to "xeroxing" papers. Xerox ran ads in business magazines that said in big letters, "You cannot Xerox a piece of paper." It went on to say that you could make a copy on a Xerox machine, but it was wrong to call that xeroxing. Eventually other competitors started making in-roads into the business and everyone started saying photocopying or copying instead, but for a while Xerox was really worried that their brand-name was in danger of becoming a verb.

The article made reference to the litigation having been going for a while. In the US, if you don't sue right away to protect your trademark when its first "infringed" then the courts can rule that you have forfeited your rights to the word or image.

Since other areas had the same design, it could hardly be said that the Met owned the it.

Sounds like a sound, reasonable and logical ruling - something that's becoming more and more rare from courts.

 

[AVON]

Whilst, that it's true, these days that, many folks under a certain certain age, will now only know of a Blue Metropolitan Police Box as, being a TARDIS. Probably, neither realised it would be so identifyable 40 year's later?

The original intention back in '63 was to have the Doctor use a different ship every story - when they realised it would be too costly, the idea of the chameleon circuit sticking - hence - we got the Police Box TARDIS!

The main reason for the removal of the Police boxes from London (and other parts of the UK - that had similar ones) was because the use of cars, new communications - radios, mobile phones etc simply mean't that the Police Boxes were now redundant!:dead:

It might just have been to get further publicity about the dear old DOCTOR'S fourthcomming birthday, on 23rd Nov! (Who says the Metropolitan Police aren't avid fans of the series and want it's return - so get into a battle over who owns the design of the TARDIS/POLICE BOX, eh?) :rolly2:

Note: (SHEFFIELD still has it's very own TARDIS, situated at the side of the Town Hall, on Surrey Street - although painted a ghastly green/cream colour! One of these days - we'll do a paint job on it!)

 

[Tabitha]

I am not sure if other cities have this also, but in Edinburgh there are plenty of old police boxes about that have been turned into coffee stands or tourist information booths. It seems weird that the police would care that much about effectively reduntant equipment. Obviously if it was an item that was still in use then I would probably understand the police point of view.