Rhythmix raises £1k in 24-hrs to battle X Factor over trademark

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 10 Nov 2011

Music and youth charity Rhythmix has raised £1,000from the public in just 24-hours to help it fund £8,000 in legal fees incurred as a result of a near three-week battle with the TV show X Factor over the trademark of its name.

Yesterday, Syco, which is owned by Simon Cowell who created the X Factor, announced in a statement to the Guardian that it had withdrawn a European trademark for the name Rhythmix, which it wanted to use for a girlband on the show X Factor.

Mark Davyd, chief executive of Rhythmix, told civilsociety.co.uk that the charity had still had no formal notification from Syco on the matter, and Syco hadn’t said if they would be happy to pay the £8,000 in legal fees incurred by the charity.

Syco’s statement to the Guardian was as follows:

"Syco are happy to withdraw the application for the trademark, as initially offered at the time of the name change to Little Mix."

A spokeswoman for Syco said that the show's lawyers wrote to the charity on 26 October offering to give them the trademark, which the charity refused. "We remain happy to withdraw it and we do not intend to use this name at any time in the future," the spokeswoman said. "We conclude this matter is closed."

However, Davyd told civilsociety.co.uk that the above statement was a “half-arsed PR attempt”:

“They offered to transfer the trademark yesterday afternoon under strict conditions that we could not talk about the conduct of the X Factor,” he said.

“Following this angry swarms on the internet started emailing Marks & Spencer and other sponsors about it and at 8pm they announced in the Guardian that the trademark application had been withdrawn.”

The charity has raised £1,000 from the public in just 24-hours to help with its legal fees.

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