‘Glee’ to be banned in the UK over trademark row?
By Josh Haggis
TV show Glee has lost a legal battle to hold the rights of its name in the UK.
Comedy and music venue The Glee Club, which has branches in Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham and Oxford, successfully claimed that FOX has infringed on its UK trademark.
The ruling could mean that the popular show, first shown in the UK on E4 in 2009, may no longer be allowed to be broadcast on British television. Merchandise such as DVDs could also be removed from sale.
“It’s a relief because you can’t get any more David and Goliath than this,” said Glee Club owner Mark Tughan after the ruling was announced.
“I always knew it would be a career-defining situation but I did not take it on for the fun of it – I took it on to win.”
Discussing why he begun the court case, Tughan said: “The confusion caused by the similarity of the names and branding in the same field of entertainment services has led to us losing custom and hampered our ability to establish our brand of cutting edge live comedy and music performances, particularly in relation to some of our newer venues in Oxford and Nottingham.”
In response to the ruling, FOX told Digital Spy “We intend to appeal and are confident that, as the case plays out, we will ultimately prevail. We remain committed to delivering Glee to all of its fans in the UK.”