I read in yesterday’s free Metro newspaper that there is a Doctor Who exhibition at London’s Earl’s Court, which runs until the 18 September.
I wasn’t really a fan of this television series which has been going, on and off, since the 1960s. I only watched it if I had nothing better to do, and remember noticing how little was spent on the sets, and that many alien worlds seemed to be located in abandoned china clay pits in Cornwall. I understand that more money is now spent on this science fiction series.
The article was written by a fan, who has changed his surname to Who. Dale Who explained how he had bought a reproduction of the police box that is used in the series from a theatre company for £30.
Police boxes aren’t used anymore. They were special blue cubicles which the public could enter to phone the police. In the series, Doctor Who uses one, the Tardis, which has a huge interior once you enter it. When it departs on its time travels, it does so with a strange grinding noise, familiar to fans.
It reminded me that the BBC, who make the series, once had a dispute with the Metropolitan Police Authority about the use of the mage of a police telephone box as a trade mark. The BBC had applied in 1996 for the use of its image in various marketing and entertainment fields. The police objected, but in 2002 this was rejected by the patent office examiner in a hearing when he pointed out that they weren’t used anymore. His summing up is full of detail. The BBC themselves ran a story about their victory.
The current registration that had been in dispute shows the three images in colour together with the words "Police Public Call Box". No mention of the Tardis.
In 1976 the BBC had applied for the word Tardis together with an image of the the police box for games, but not as a toy police box. This is also a current registration. There can be a fine line in what can be considered acceptable and not acceptable by those that might be offended.
Also relevant to the series, the BBC has registered the use of The Daleks (applied for in 1964), Doctor Who (1976) and Cybermen (1996) for various activities. These can be found on the official trade mark database.
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