The Mayor of Liverpool has delivered a message to the football club, claiming that they cannot trademark their name.
The Reds had attempted to put a copyright on the word “Liverpool”, but had stressed that it was only the context of footballing products, as reported by the Echo.
But Mayor Joe Anderson has taken to Twitter to suggest that he will quash the Kop’s effort.
Writing on his personal account, he said: “I have informed LFC that I and LCC will oppose their attempt to trademark the name Liverpool.
“I do not believe you can trademark a City name. I value our relationship with LFC and we will work to help remove counterfeit goods, but we will also protect local traders and our brand”.
I have informed LFC that I and LCC will oppose their attempt to Trade Mark the name Liverpool. I do not believe you can Trade Mark a City name. I value our relationship with LFC and we will work to help remove counterfiet goods,but we will also protect local traders and our brand
— Joe Anderson (@joeando58) August 27, 2019
OPINION
This is a bit of strange one really. On the one hand, as soon as you have a club coming out and saying they want to trademark the name to a city, you will always have some kind of backlash, especially from rival fans in said city. On the other, when you actually realise that this was purely a football related thing, then it becomes a little less ridiculous. That being said, Liverpudlians are fiercely proud of their city, and rightly so, and while half of Merseyside’s residents are also fiercely proud of the football club that bears the city’s name, the other half a vehemently impassioned against it. On the basis of that alone, the Kop should probably have known that trademarking “Liverpool” was always going to be a very, very tall ask. Anderson’s shut down is disappointing if not unexpected, and the club are going to have to find another way to crack down on counterfeited merchandise.
