A businessman has launched a bid to reverse a decision by European authorities to give Liverpool FC a trademark on the Liver Bird.
Alfie Hincks, who runs a maritime training company, has applied to have the Anfield club’s claim on the famous symbol struck out.
The 45-year-old, who lives in Fazakerley, said the symbol belongs to the city and should not be allowed to be “privatized”.
Mr. Hincks has amassed more than 100 pages of evidence showing how the famous symbol is in “common use” across the city.
Liverpool have always maintained they wanted the trademark to help clamp down on counterfeit football merchandise.
Earlier this month, the Post revealed how the Anfield club was successful in its bid to get the trademark, when it did a deal with Liverpool council so both could apply for different trademarks.
The club was granted a trademark by the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union (TMDREU).
The council is seeking its own trademark through the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.
Town hall officials said the deal would mean the club could crack down on bootleggers.
But Mr Hincks said: “The Liver Bird is used by a whole array of companies, shops, community groups and schools.
“It is in common use and belongs to the people of Liverpool, and has done since the city was given its coat of arms in 1797.
“No one should be allowed to privatize it.”
Mr. Hincks’s application to the TMDREU to have the club’s trademark cancelled will cost him 700 euros. A Liverpool spokesman said: “Our position was always to solely seek to protect our specific version of the Liver Bird and stop its use in counterfeit merchandise.
“We never intended to challenge the usage by the council or other charity or community groups of their version of the Liver Bird.”
The club filed its registration with TMDREU in January and the trademark, covering Europe, was granted in July.
The trademark covers a whole host of materials from clothing and kits to keyrings, and is valid until 2020.
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