Bucks Fizz in a tizz over trademark ownership
Eighties Eurovision champs Bucks Fizz have become embroiled in an inharmonious spat that has left band members bitterly divided in a dispute over intellectual property rights.
The UK intellectual property office has sided with Robert Gubby due to the singer’s foresightedness in trademarking the term back in 2001 – and a letter written in 1981 in which fellow singer Mike Nolan ceded the rights.
It follows a spat between rival members of the group with band members Nolan, Jay Aston and Cheryl Baker, attempting to reassert rights to the Bucks Fizz name after the trio reformed to perform at 80s weekends at out of season holiday camps.
Touring under the name “the original Bucks Fizz” since 2009 they claim that Gubby’s rival group - known simply as “Bucks Fizz”, was misleading audiences into thinking it to be the original band.
In their ruling the UK property office stated: “The submission that two original members are enough to avoid misleading the public (possibly provided these are Rita Stroud and Mike Nolan) but that one original member is not enough appears to me to be an arbitrary distinction.
"The public would have no reason to expect the group performing as Bucks Fizz to consist of the original lineup … [that] had not performed together for 24 years."