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It's Not a Police Box, It's a Tardis
xA40D writes "The BBC is reporting that they've won the battle with the Metropolitan Police over the trademark police box, more commonly known as a Tardis: '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.'"
You'd think the coppers would have something better to do than having trade mark wrangles with the BBC over something they stopped using nearly 50 years ago. Sounds a bit opportunistic - were they trying to raise some cash for the police social club?
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Perhaps this will allow a reincarnation of the earlier Dr. Who TV series in a new form, or perhaps even a new movie. I remember watching these when I was young, very cool stuff despite its age.
:-)
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.
Anyone besides me think that the £850 isn't going to amount to much in comparison to the legal charges. Having to pay legal charges for 7 years worth of case-wrangling is probably a big ouch on the police bankbook. The Metropolitan Police will probably have a shortage of donuts in the office for quite awhile.
Any else anticipate an article that states Metropolitan Police are reducing the tolerance for speeding limit to 1% and then upping the cost of a tickets, they'll have to recover this money somehow.
Just a note - you've got to love a reference in this post to _Good Omens_. On a related note (so that this post isn't viewed as a troll or whatever), I think its important that what the courts basically said here is that if you're not using a trademark for a commercial use, its not really yours. In a meaningful way, they may have just made it possible for people to use any non-commercial trademark in a way that doesn't infringe on the original use.
"Stumble before you crawl"
Yes the police are funded by the taxpayer, but Joe Random Public also pays for the BBC (through taxes and TV licenses). That's right, two-fifths of British free-to-air television is public television.
I think the BBC will do a better job of making money off the trademark than the police ever would, thus more money goes back into a public service. I put this one down as a good outcome for the British public.
Be careful. People in masks cannot be trusted.
But anyways, it's not like the police were going to win against the BBC's high-priced lawyers -- and now that this lawsuit's over, the police (read: taxpayers) also have to pay the BBC's mega legal fees, too, even if the rest of it is just 850 pounds.
You're right - one taxpayer-funded entity is suing another taxpayer-funded entity, over something that was developed with the taxpayer's money and therefore rightfully belongs in the public domain. They only people who are coming out of this ahead are the lawyers. What a coincidence that the present Prime Minister, his wife, and most of their friends, colleagues and supporters are all lawyers. Shakespeare had the right idea centuries ago.
The BBC is a Corporation under Royal Charter. It may seem like a subtle difference, but it means that the BBC for the most part is run like any other company with the exception that it's board is appointed by the Crown, and it's main form of revenue is the license fee.
Then can you explain the practical differences, if any, between the license fee and a hypothecated poll tax on televisions?
Calling it a corporation rather than a department is mere semantics. After all, license payers are not customers in any meaningful way, since you have to pay the fee irregardless of whether you watch the BBC 24 hrs a day, or not at all. Exactly the same as you pay NI whether or not you ever use a hospital.
But he's never referred to as 'Doctor Who' in the series itself, just 'The Doctor' [/ultra uber nerd mode]
Well, except once. But then the Who nerds (what's the real term for them? Whoies? Whoites? Whovians?) got angry, so they never did it again.