Premier League team’s logo ‘copied’ man’s 1963 drawing
A man in the UK has accused a Premier League football club of copying a drawing he submitted as a child 55 years ago and using it 16 years later as the club’s logo.
The man’s legal representative, Lawrence Abramson, a consultant solicitor at Keystone Law, spoke to WIPR this morning about the ongoing copyright lawsuit involving his client, Pete Davies.
The story dates to 1963, when Davies submitted a drawing of a wolf to an art competition in Wolverhampton, England.
According to Abramson, Davies later noticed that local football club Wolverhampton Wanderers’ new logo—introduced in 1979—looked like the drawing he submitted to the competition. Davies reportedly wrote to the club but received no response.
Davies did not have the artwork in his possession, and so without proof, he had to let the matter go, Abramson explained.
In 2016, Davies found his original drawings along with an advert for the competition when clearing out boxes. The discovery presents “clear evidence” that Davies created the wolf artwork, Abramson said.
However, Steven Mather, partner at Josiah Hincks Solicitors and who is not involved in the case, explained that the club had claimed that Davies’ complaint fails to add up: “Davies said he designed it, submitted it for a competition, Wolves saw it. And then 15 years later decided to use it.”
Michael Hart, partner at Baker McKenzie and also not involved in the dispute, said: “If the designs are notably similar and the claimant can demonstrate that the designer of the club's logo saw or was likely to have seen his design, he might have a chance of forcing the club to show that they did not copy it.”
According to Abramson, “we can’t prove that anybody at the club saw Davies’ design, but the similarities are so striking that there must have been access”.
He claimed there is evidence that the judge in the 1963 art competition was a friend of Harry Marshall, who was chair of the club in 1979 and oversaw the implementation of the new logo.
Also, if Marshall had commissioned the new logo or had it drawn professionally, there would be some sort of record of that available, Abramson claimed.
Earlier this week, the English High Court, where Davies filed his claim, heard representatives of the football club argue that the claim should be struck out on the grounds that they cannot receive a fair trial as so much time has passed, Abramson explained.
He said that this is the club’s “principle defence”: everyone who was around at the time of introducing the new logo is no longer alive, the club argued, so a fair trial cannot take place.
Charlie Winckworth, partner at Hogan Lovells, who is not a part of the dispute, said that while the long passage of time poses a challenge for Davies, a House of Lords decision in 2009 (Whiter Shade of Pale) should give him “cause for confidence”.
In that matter, an organist who helped to compose a melody was successful in bringing his copyright claim 38 years later, Winckworth explained.
The High Court is due to rule on the club’s motion to strike out Davies’ claim in September.
Mather noted that Davies will probably be asked to pay the club’s “sizeable legal fees” if he is unsuccessful, but if a ruling is given in his favour then the damages awarded could be “significant”.
He added that the club would be likely to enter into a licensing agreement with Davies if he wins, in order to avoid a rebrand.
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