Sports Direct with humiliating control

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Records published by the Intellectual Property Office yesterday show Sports Direct own quite a lot of trademarks, including:

Rangers
Scope of trademark: organisation of sporting activities.
This property has not been licenced to the football club, or joint ventures like Rangers Retail Ltd.  Sports Direct own the rights to call a football team Rangers.

Rangers (again)
Scope: from clothing to trinkets and everything in between.
Owned by Sports Direct, licenced to Rangers Retail Ltd

Glasgow Rangers Football Club
Scope: clothes trinkets, etc.
Owned by Sports Direct, licenced to Rangers Retail Ltd

RFC, Broxi Bear, The Gers, Follow Follow, Ibrox, Rangers News, Rangers Travel and all the crests, badges and logos are all owned by Sports Direct and licenced to Rangers Retail Ltd, which is 76% owned by the Sports Direct group.

So if the club want to call themselves Rangers, or Glasgow Rangers, they need to cut a deal with Mike Ashley.  The most humiliating aspect of the whole thing is that the new board appeared to know nothing about this until the Intellectual Property Office published the details yesterday.  The lack of due diligence is breathtaking.

The only things Ashley seems to have ignored is that pejorative nickname they complain about so much, and the phrase Murray Park, although he has security over the training ground of that name.

We warned them repeatedly.  Ashley was in control and had the opportunity to ensure he got what he wanted before the EGM.  One of the richest men in Europe, he is a formidable opponent and known to be utterly ruthless.

You can’t bully him.  Better to recognise this reality and accept your subservient future than create a scenario where even another liquidation event would not free the ‘Rangers’ football brand from the ironclad yolk of a man you’ve made your enemy.

What have the lemmings done to themselves?  We were told Mike Ashley was a business man and he would acquiesce as this was just business.  In the history of business miscalculations this is up there with the guy at Pye who rejected The Beatles.

It’s all their own work, they can’t blame the SFA, SPL, SFL, Celtic, Her Majesty’s Revenue’, the BBC or Craig Whyte.  A recovery which would have been difficult enough is now completely and predictably wrecked.

Fancy a trip to Dublin for the Ireland-Scotland game in June?  There’s a bus leaving Glasgow with Ireland and Scotland (but all Celtic) fans.  Two nights in a Dublin hotel, travel and match ticket among the Ireland fans for £200.  Let me know if you’re interested, celticquicknews@gmail.com

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1,208 Comments

  1. Celtic starting XI: Gordon; Ambrose, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Bitton; Mackay-Steven, Johansen, Armstrong; Griffiths

  2. Celtic starting XI: Gordon; Ambrose, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Bitton; Mackay-Steven, Johansen, Armstrong; Griffiths

  3. Melbourne Mick on

    Right guy’s

     

    need to go out and do my missionary work in Fremantle

     

    maybe one of you guy’s who can do that copy and paste

     

    thingy could add on all the new names for the darkside

     

    should be quite a list, maybe try a badge design next that

     

    should be fun.

     

    i’ll start with a big orange mr custard face and DOH! above

     

    it.

     

    H.H Mick

  4. embramike says "the Huns are Deid" on

    Celtic Football Club ‏@celticfc 3s3 seconds ago

     

     

    Subs: Zaluska, Matthews, Guidetti, Stokes, Commons, McGregor, Tierney

  5. I didn’t read the blog post game on weds.

     

     

    What was the general thoughts on Armstrong playing the Broony role?

     

     

    I thought he looked a natural.

     

     

    HH

  6. glendalystonsils on

    !!Bada Bing!!

     

    10:47 on

     

    11 April, 2015

     

    I wonder how that partnership with The Dallas Cowboys is coming along…..

     

     

    I thought Dallas’s cowboys was the collective name for Scottish referees. After all, they do have an ‘arrangement’ with Sevco!

  7. South Of Tunis on

    Mrs S of T got into betting on the Grand National when we lived in the UK.I never bet on horses..Mrs S of T knows zilch but has a wowee record of successful Grand National guesses..This year’ s guess – Night in Milan .100 euros on the nose @ 25 / 1

  8. Cathedral View on

    With under an hour until kick off my morning perusal of the BBC sport webpages has revealed.

     

     

    BBC Scottish Football – Top Story – Temporary manager of third place Championship team spouts rubbish about player contracts. Also, two prominent stories from the Championship.

     

     

    No mention yet of the big game of the day where the top team in Scotland takes on third in the Premier League.

     

     

     

    cv

  9. embramike says "the Huns are Deid" on

    Apart from Efe at RB probably our strongest line up.

     

     

    Obviously Ronny realises this will be a tough fixture and also needs to put down a marker for next week’s semi final.

     

     

    Won’t be a lot of goals in it today so happy with a 1-0 and 3 pts on way back to CP. HH

  10. Delaneys Dunky on

    Sipsini

     

     

    Working till 6.30 on Wednesday bud. Will be a fast train from Dalmuir to Dalmarnock for me.

  11. 67Heaven .. CHALLENGING THE LIE ..I am wee Oscar...... Ipox belongs to the creditors on

    New name for sevco …… Corruption Incorporated

  12. Embramike,

     

     

    Agreed.

     

     

    While a win today will guarantee nothing next weekend, a right good performance might unnerve them a little

     

     

    HH

  13. 67Heaven .. CHALLENGING THE LIE ..I am wee Oscar...... Ipox belongs to the creditors on

    says “the huns are deid”

     

     

    11:55 on 11 April, 2015

     

     

    0-4 …..nae bother

  14. My friends in Celtic,

     

     

    No matter what they call themselves they will always be the “Huns”. This is just how it is. It is neither racist or sectarian , it is just what they are.

     

     

    HH.

  15. Melbourne Mick on

    Lennybhoy

     

     

    Yes pretty near, we are in the Fremantle town centre now

     

    and just going out to spread the gospel.

     

    H.H Mick.

  16. thomthethim for Oscar OK on

    Mike doesn’t own the rights.

     

     

    He holds them until they pay back his £5m loan.

     

     

    However, in the meantime, he not only holds the rights to names, badges, crests, etc., but also the arms, legs, buttocks’ and every other body part whereon these emblems are tattooed.

     

    Body and soulless.

  17. melbourne mick

     

     

    12:05 on 11 April, 2015

     

     

    Bros-in-Law lives in Riverton, occasional poster but more of a lurker.

     

     

    Keep the Faith!

     

     

    Hail Hail!

  18. Just arrived in Motherwell. Taking faither to Railway Tavern to watch the game then a short drive to Wishaw General to visit mother.

     

     

    2-0 Celtic Sparky first goal.

  19. bournesouprecipe on

    Kieran Tierney has been rewarded for his impressive displays since recovering from injury by making the bench (MH)

     

     

    @cfc