{"id":93871,"date":"2017-08-07T14:06:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T14:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.compumark.com\/?p=26260\/"},"modified":"2017-08-07T14:06:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T14:06:32","slug":"hachette-uk-acts-five-go-theatre-comedy-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/blog\/hachette-uk-acts-five-go-theatre-comedy-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Hachette UK acts up over \u2018Five Go\u2019 theatre comedy show"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve stepped foot into a bookshop within the last year or so, chances are you\u2019ve seen the \u2018grown-up\u2019 parodies of Enid Blyton\u2019s well-known Famous Five <\/em>series adorning the shelves. Ever since Hachette UK acquired the rights to the books through Enid Blyton Entertainment, titles such as Five on Brexit Island <\/em>and Five Give Up The Booze <\/em>have proven to be extremely popular sellers.<\/p>\n

Now, in a bid to protect the Famous Five <\/em>trademark, Hachette is attempting to assert its authority on a comedy group and their Blyton-inspired theatre sketch show, \u2018Five Go Off on One!\u2019. <\/em>The show, which sees the group take to the stage to \u2018lovingly ridicule\u2019 a selection of children\u2019s books over the course of an hour, was first brought to Hachette\u2019s attention when it appeared in the programme for last year\u2019s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at which point the company quickly fired off a legal warning. It argued that the show\u2019s title would be \u201clikely to mislead customers into believing [it] is endorsed by Enid Blyton Entertainment\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to these initial threats, the group offered to change the name of their production to \u2018The Reasonably Well Known Five: An Unofficial, Unlicensed and Unrestrained Parody\u2019<\/em> \u2014 what else would you expect from a comedy group? \u2014 but this still didn\u2019t satisfy Hachette. They sent another letter demanding that the word \u2018Five<\/em>\u2019 be replaced entirely, due to the trademark it held for the Famous Five <\/em>phrase.<\/p>\n

Eventually, with the potential of significant financial costs hanging over their heads, the group reluctantly changed the show\u2019s name to \u2018Four Go Off on One! A Jolly Good Romp Through Childhood\u2019<\/em>, dropping \u2018Timmy the dog\u2019 from its sketches as an unfortunate result.<\/p>\n

Despite giving in to the pressure put on them by Hachette, many experts have questioned the strength of the company\u2019s legal argument. Discussing the warning letter in a Chortle article<\/a>, intellectual property lawyer James Mitchell, of JP Mitchell Solicitors in Hampton, Middlesex, said: \u201cHachette are claiming \u2018Famous Five<\/em>\u2019 as a trademark, but unless I\u2019m missing something, there\u2019s not enough overlap with that and the title Five Go Off on One <\/em>to warrant a claim. The letter is flimsy at best\u2026if I was their lawyer I would respond by tearing it to bits and suggest that if Hachette sent another we would take action for unjustified threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s creator Robert Eyres, who also happens to hold a law degree, weighed in on the issue, saying: \u201cI can\u2019t help but think Hachette would have let this go were they not currently putting a lot of marketing effort behind their own series of Famous Five <\/em>parodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the story, a spokeswoman for Hachette told Chortle<\/em>: \u201cWe have no intention of preventing the performance of a genuine parody and have demonstrated with our Famous Five <\/em>parodies that we can take and make a joke. However, we own the trade mark [sic] \u2018The Famous Five\u2019 <\/em>and we need to ensure that it is protected, that the phrased \u2018Five\u2019 <\/em>is not used in a misleading way to create a link with our brand and that its use does not conflict with any licenses we have already issued. The copyright laws relating to parodies do not apply to trade marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the show shall go on \u2014 albeit under a rather different name \u2014 as both parties determine the best course of action. Either the performance continues under the current name without disruption from Hachette, or Eyres and the rest of his group decide they have a chance to take on the company with a case of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve stepped foot into a bookshop within the last year or so, chances are you\u2019ve seen the \u2018grown-up\u2019 parodies of Enid Blyton\u2019s well-known Famous Five series adorning the shelves….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,36,80,108],"class_list":["post-93871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-compumark","tag-trademark-infringement","tag-trademark-protection","tag-trademark-screening"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":93871},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/intellectual-property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}