The initial information was released by Everton FC supporters site and forum NSNO. The site, officially recognised by Everton Football Club, were surprised and disappointed to receive an email from a Newcastle based law firm warning them to remove the moniker 'EFC' from t-shirts available to buy on the NSNO site, or face the consequences of legal proceedings against them by 'the club.'
NSNO were surprised to find out that 'EFC' was a registered trademark belonging to 'the Club' and disappointed that the initial contact on the issue was an email threatening legal action.
The owner of the site was clear that a simple and less costly email from 'the club' would have solved the problem without any threat of legal action. "The letters ('EFC') will be removed. They would have got the same action if they'd sent an email themselves." I do take issue with the club feeling unable to contact me directly and rather using expensive solicitors instead. A direct email from EFC would have just resulted in me taking down the t-shirts and carrying on, nobody would have ever known anything, because clearly no fucker wants to buy them anyway! haha!"
Apparently NSNO have sold just 3 'offending' t-shirts in the last 12 months.
The next supporters to feel the recent wrath of Everton Football Clubs internet snoops were Podcast producers Followtonians. As with NSNO, they are recognised by Everton Football Club as an unofficial Everton website and were similarly surprised to find themselves under threat of legal action by Everton Football Club.
In an almost identical situation, the people at Followtonians received an email from an image rights solicitor warning them to remove t-shirts from their site that featured any images of Everton Football Club players.
Further to this, it has emerged that Everton Football Club had taken the decision to disassociate itself from Followtonians due to one of its founders making his feelings known on twitter. Apparently and according to 'the club,' tweeting “Fuck off, Howard” after a mistake that led to a Spurs goal and “Fuck off, Moyes” after he subbed Yakubu in the same match is tantamount to making personal threats against Everton staff.
The madness doesn't stop there! Only yesterday, the excellent The Peoples Forum was not surprised to be contacted by an image rights company by the name of NetResult, bizarre as it may seem, a forum run by Evertonians for Evertonians is not allowed to use the Everton FC crest as the Premier League owns all the image rights to all club crests. The forum host, Boardhost, received a similar email and The Peoples Forum was warned to remove the image within 24 hours or the board would be taken offline.
It seems someone at Everton Football Club has enough time on their hands to warn the Premier League that one of its supporters fora is in breach of image rights law. Which is very erm, vigilant of them.
Likewise, the Everton supporters website and forum Grand Old Team, after receiving a similar email has agreed with Everton Football Club to post the following warning to its users:
'Our client (Everton Football Club) has highlighted Player/Match Action Images, Club Crests and Fixtures among the posts and as member’s avatar’s in your forum
I understand that due to the huge number of posts the tracking and removing of infringing images would prove difficult and very time consuming to perform.
A suggestion I have made with other football forums, is that when you do come across new images please take steps to remove them, but I would be grateful if you could routinely post a message to members warning them of the issues in question.'
[caption id="attachment_306" align="aligncenter" width="178" caption="Can You Tell What It Is Yet?"]
[/caption]If you are a member of or are running an Everton supporters website/forum/facebook page/blog and currently find yourself scratching your head in disbelief, confusion and fear over what image/words/avatar you can or cannot use then you are just a click away from salvation. Well maybe:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-os/t-find/t-find-adp?propnum=0556745001
Who knows how many Everton supporters or their websites/fora have been threatened with legal action by their own football club? One thing is certain:
Be warned, Everton Football Club is watching you!
