Simply the crest

By: Tim | February 26th, 2009

Earlier this week I was contacted by officials at The Offside in relation to the club crests that used to appear at the top of each league page. These may be a dim and distant memory to you now, but you can check out the Italian league page to see how they used to look if you want a refresher.

It turns out that the crests were taken off because the site was contacted by a legal team acting on behalf of all the English and Scottish leagues, they advised that “your present use (of the crests) is an infringement of the Leagues’ legal rights and all such unauthorised use must cease immediately”. For more information please click here.

The Offside recommended that we go to the clubs directly, and ask for permission to use the crest – one blogger had found this particularly (and perhaps surprisingly) fruitful, so why not I thought, I’ll give it a go too.

So I wrote a polite and courteous email, explaining the situation and the fact that The Offside does not unlawfully use the crest to make any profit or sell merchandise, it is used purely to help users identify the club, and there is no suggestion that the blog is in any way officially linked to the club. The response, which may not shock some Forest fans, was a curt NO:

Dear Tim

Thank you for your email regarding use of the club crest.

We have a strict policy that restricts the third party use of our logo, this is in place to protect the club. For this reason we will not be granting you permission to use the crest.

Kind regards

NFFC

Now, I can understand the club wanting to protect their logo against unlawful use, however, in this instance it seems ridiculously petty. I sent an email back earlier today, arguing the toss, and got another curt response:

Hi Tim

Whilst you might consider our view to be short sighted, we have a myriad of reasons why we have the policies we do and it is not solely to protect us against profiteering or merchandising.

Regards

NFFC

For now, at least, it looks like we’re stuck with the red and white cross, which, frankly, looks a little naff. Let me know what you think of this though, who knows, if we kick up enough fuss they might change their minds (yeah, right).

In transfer related news, Forest have been linked to Manchester City striker Ched Evans, and Stoke City midfielder Michael Tonge. A few weeks ago I probably would have asked why we’re not being linked to defenders, but given the injury crisis we need fresh faces in all departments, and quick. Evans didn’t fare too badly at Norwich last season anyway, and if Earnshaw does take a few weeks to recover properly then we’ll need goals from somewhere.

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Category: misc, news

Tags: ched evans, michael tonge, misc, news, nottingham forest, robert earnshaw

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Comments  

• simon |  February 26th, 2009 at 5:34 am

  
  
  

  why don’t you use one of their old crests?

  Posted from United Kingdom

  

• Tim |  February 26th, 2009 at 5:56 am

  
  
  

  I might run that by Forest, although their short and bittersweet negative replies lead me to believe that they’re not willing to work with me / The Offside on this one…

  Posted from United States

  

• Rob |  February 26th, 2009 at 8:04 am

  
  
  

  Thumbs down to Forest for that. I like how they have a myraid of reasons, but no intention of letting you know of them.

  Posted from United States

  

• Dorset Red |  February 26th, 2009 at 10:04 am

  
  
  

  Tim, This is just plain daft. All they have to do is license it to you in a very restricted format. At least you had the courtesy to contact them which many others might not. This is the kind of small minded thinking that pervades the club at the moment. A great shame.

  Posted from France

  

• Adrian |  February 26th, 2009 at 10:32 am

  
  
  

  I (currently) work for an online brand protection firm and can sort of understand why the club might not want its logo to be so freely used, what with all of the scams that people are perpetrating these days. But I also know that legitimate sites are (on the company’s behalf) allowed to use such logos for non-commercial purposes. I certainly think theoffside.com falls within the latter category, but it seems the club is not so convinced.

  Personally I would think the club would want to encourage this type of grassroots reporting, especially since it is well researched and written, but I guess they’ve already made their mind up on that. I’m certain this won’t put a stop to your contributions Tim.

  As for the player links, those two might have been nice to bring on permanent moves during the window. City’s new found spending power may cause them to overlook a fairly good young talent like Evans.

  Posted from Canada

  

• Tim |  February 26th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  
  
  

  Rob – I liked the myriad part too, I sincerely doubt they could give me 10 valid reasons, never mind a myriad of them.

  Dorset Red – exactly, we’re only talking about a small logo on the top of the page too, and an even smaller tree logo by the word ‘Forest’ on the overall Championship page. If they can’t allow that then what do they allow?

  Adrian – I understand why they want to protect their logo, but as you pointed out, in this instance it seems a bit OTT. The Offside is non-commercial, and it in no way claims to be officially linked to the club. I guess any site such as this can take potential users away from their own site, but still, they could have been more proactive, perhaps tried to spark up a relationship and get some advertising from it, or something similar.

  It’d be great to get someone like Evans in, I doubt City will give him away cheaply though, richest club in the world or otherwise!

  Posted from United States

  

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