Is it true? British & Irish Lions threaten legal action against clubs.

Is it true the British & Irish Lions are threatening legal action against any clubs that use its image without paying for it this summer?

If true then the spirit of rugby is dead as is the Lions imho.

Without the clubs there is no Lions.

Why would clubs seek to use the British & Irish Lions image?

For club dinners, charity events, photo opportunities of their players wearing Lions shirts if selected etc etc....

They're also worried at Lions-branded events being put on which are obviously not within the ethos of the Lions - the terrifying example brought up on the wonderful 'Blood and Mud' podcast was a 'British and Irish Lions 2017 Burlesque Night'.

I then spent ten minutes involuntarily picturing what that would even look like.

They're also trying to clamp down on the circulation of bootleg copies of 'The Power of Four' (sung by Matt Stevens).

Since when has the ethos of the Lions been to allow commercial entities to exploit their image for financial gain?

Cyril wrote:They're also trying to clamp down on the circulation of bootleg copies of 'The Power of Four' (sung by Matt Stevens).

Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god

I suppose theres a legitimate concern that Glasgow might viote for indpendance and set up their own Lions team with both GrAys and the rest of the Scotfolk who got left behind.

TightHEAD wrote:For club dinners, charity events, photo opportunities of their players wearing Lions shirts if selected etc etc....

Ah, you mean to exploit a 3rd party's brand for financial gain. It's not like the clubs move an inch on releasing players early to further the cause of the Lions (and why should they do so at the business end of a season you may well ask).

This has nothing to do with the ethos of the Lions. Nothing at all. It's a brand, and to use it you need permission.

The Lions is purely a brand so has to be copyright protected and that enforced to satisfy the greed maximise the income.

On the flip side can the clubs threaten legal action to stop their players being selected for the Lions?

Or to extrapolate further can a season ticket holder take legal action against the Lions for putting their club players at unnecessary risk?

They'll be insured so no.

No 7&1/2 wrote:They'll be insured so no.

Against injury only?

What about loss of pre-season training and associated late introduction to the normal season?
What about loss of competitiveness at the start of the season when some clubs have more players missing than others?
What about the negative impact and divisiveness engendered in the squad between those selected and those not?
What about PTSD when players come home in psychological bits?

If all that's insured for then it's amazing the Lion's have anything left to pay the players.

Why dont you try it and find out. The rest of us will be in the pub watching the Lions.

Yeah...just worth pointing out that any player wishing to opt out of the lions can do so and has happened in the past I believe. And some of that sounds like the things the evil prl are accused of ie placing the club first and viewing players as theirs.

Gooseberry wrote:Why dont you try it and find out. The rest of us will be in the pub watching the Lions.

Ever since the Romans built the Colosseum, the principle of people paying to watch weird (and bloody) mismatches has endured. Thanks for the advice but I'm hoping none of my team's players will be selected anyway.

The Great Aukster wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:Why dont you try it and find out. The rest of us will be in the pub watching the Lions.

Ever since the Romans built the Colosseum, the principle of people paying to watch weird (and bloody) mismatches has endured. Thanks for the advice but I'm hoping none of my team's players will be selected anyway.

Which lucky team is that?

No 7&1/2 wrote: ... sounds like the things the evil prl are accused of ...

The PRL ain't evil. They is just very naughty boys that lets business rule their hearts - as is normal for 'strictly biz' types. The doddering blazer eejits from the cobwebbed Union fraternity are just more temperate in their love for cute and cuddly stuff like rabbits and puppies and Cabbage Patch dolls and things.

The Olympics did a similar thing, I think they banned sponsors of individual athletes tweeting their support for their athletes if they weren't Olympic sponsors? Or banned the athletes from tweeting their sponsors. Or both.

Whatever it was, I think the penalty was being stripped of your medal, so the penalties were harsh to say the least.

I think that's worse than what the Lions are doing.

Trying to avoid #Lions tossing dwarves is all it is.

It's just as well the Welsh regions aren't evil like PRL or they'd have a long acrimonious history with their union and various threats of legal action.

Oh wait hang on.

The Great Aukster wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:Why dont you try it and find out. The rest of us will be in the pub watching the Lions.

Ever since the Romans built the Colosseum, the principle of people paying to watch weird (and bloody) mismatches has endured. Thanks for the advice but I'm hoping none of my team's players will be selected anyway.

We know, we know. You've told us about a million times.

robbo277 wrote:The Olympics did a similar thing, I think they banned sponsors of individual athletes tweeting their support for their athletes if they weren't Olympic sponsors? Or banned the athletes from tweeting their sponsors. Or both.

Whatever it was, I think the penalty was being stripped of your medal, so the penalties were harsh to say the least.

I think that's worse than what the Lions are doing.

I used to do schools work. In the run up to London 2012 we weren't allowed to call our usual annual 'Mini Olympics' event (kids doing relay races and the like) by that name, as we were threatened with legal action. We'd been using the name for about 6 years prior to this. We had to change it to Mini Sports Challenge or something similar. It was the word Olympics that was prohibited. F***ing pathetic!

The f**king new Olympics crowd stole it from the ancient Greeks.  Was Baron de Coubertin taken to court?

F**k 'em.  You should have let yourselves be taken to court, Griff, and get that guy... em Jonathan Goldberg, to defend you.  The entire 'Olympics' Movement against a bunch of kids - he'd work some magic on the optics of that.

Griff wrote:

robbo277 wrote:The Olympics did a similar thing, I think they banned sponsors of individual athletes tweeting their support for their athletes if they weren't Olympic sponsors? Or banned the athletes from tweeting their sponsors. Or both.

Whatever it was, I think the penalty was being stripped of your medal, so the penalties were harsh to say the least.

I think that's worse than what the Lions are doing.

I used to do schools work. In the run up to London 2012 we weren't allowed to call our usual annual 'Mini Olympics' event (kids doing relay races and the like) by that name, as we were threatened with legal action. We'd been using the name for about 6 years prior to this. We had to change it to Mini Sports Challenge or something similar. It was the word Olympics that was prohibited. F***ing pathetic!  

The Challenge Cup let you do that??! They need new lawyers.

SecretFly wrote:The f**king new Olympics crowd stole it from the ancient Greeks.  Was Baron de Coubertin taken to court?

F**k 'em.  You should have let yourselves be taken to court, Griff, and get that guy... em Jonathan Goldberg, to defend you.  The entire 'Olympics' Movement against a bunch of kids - he'd work some magic on the optics of that.

Indeed, I'd be interested to hear the legal basis they had for taking 'ownership' of the word Olympic ... quite apart from the PR disaster that would have unleashed had they carried out their threat

KFC threatened to sue the Tan Hill Inn, they used the words "family feast" on its Sunday dinner menu.

They backed down in the end.

The really annoying thing is - apart from the Corporate bullying and the very notion that they can trademark words - is than the grub at the Tan Hill is proper stuff not some bucket of deep fried mouse.

Mouse??? It's been Mouse all along????

I've been eating Mouse????



.........tasty stuff