In May 2011 we reported to members that "The 4-year campaign to suppress BAFF by 'The Combined Armed Forces Federation UK ... has finally been seen off, after a series of rulings in BAFF's favour. This tedious "People's Front of Judea" saga is therefore at an end..."
This was about a trademark dispute which CAFFUK had created by the following threats of infringement proceedings, which they posted to BAFF at Christmas Eve 2007, and published on CAFFUK's two public websites:
"The Title, Letterhead, Logo and Trade Mark of The Combined Armed Forces Federation UK (CAFF UK) is registered for copyright protection with the UK Intellectual Property Office.
You are required by The Combined Armed Forces Federation UK to immediately remove the title, letterhead, logo and trade mark of BAFF (2006) Ltd from the entire public domain including its website and Company House registration.
Any failure to comply with the above requirement and inform those to whom it may concern immediately, will be regarded as a continued act of piracy and an injunction will be applied for to prevent any further breach of copyright. A claim for costs and exemplary damages will also be made."
A CAFFUK representative had in fact applied for trademark registration (not 'copyright protection') of its 'Union Jack and crown' logo. The proposed trademark had been published by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for possible 'opposition'. Registration could not be granted before the publication period had expired, and any 'opposition' formally considered and rejected.
The claim to have registered a trademark was therefore false, but even if it had been registered, CAFF still had no grounds of legal action against BAFF.
BAFF had neither copied their trademark, nor were we pretending to be them. Trademark registration couldn't confer exclusive rights to the phrase 'armed forces federation' which CAFF hadn't created, was already in use by BAFF, and had existed in the English language for many years before the formation of CAFF:
So the published pseudo-legal threats had multiple problems, with no basis in actual law. But, as a brand new organisation at the time, BAFF couldn't expect our target membership of serving personnel and veterans necessarily to know that.
All this happened after BAFF had offered to support CAFFUK's pre-1975 pension campaign (but only if they wanted), and had referred to CAFF the only membership enquiry BAFF ever received about their pension grievance,
Our then lawyers explained the situation to the CAFFUK representative and invited him to undertake not to repeat the threats, but as he didn't do that, it was decided to oppose the trademark application.
After two rounds of evidence and a hearing, the trademark dispute decision was in BAFF's favour but the CAFFUK representative then appealed against the decision, almost certainly against legal advice funded from CAFF veterans' subscriptions.
After another hearing the appeal was also unsuccessful, so trademark registration of the CAFFUK logo was refused.
Having made the original 'exemplary damages' threats and having presumably authorised and funded the trademark application, the CAFFUK committee then informed us that the legally-enforceable costs awarded against their 'Secretary-General' were no concern of theirs.
Their representative also refused to pay, and finally made two attempts through the courts to block recovery of the debt. He was again unsuccessful, and after ample warnings the awarded costs were recovered in full by High Court Enforcement Officers, along with the additional court and enforcement costs.
We informed the CAFF representative during the dispute that there was no question of our attempting to enforce our own genuinely-registered trademark in a similar manner against them.
References and notes
The dispute is mentioned at external link: Trade mark victory for the Queen. [NB: relevant trademark law has changed since our case.]
BAFF are very grateful to our then solicitors Russell, Jones and Walker (RJW, now part of Slater Gordon) for their advice and assistance in this unwanted dispute, particularly to Edward Cooper, and to Counsel instructed by RJW. We were represented at both trademark hearings, and at the final County Court hearing, by our then Executive Chair, Douglas Young.
While the time and attention demanded by this prolonged saga did cause damage as intended, our volunteers' best efforts continued throughout. See for example BAFF in the news (2008-2010), which covers a period in the middle of the dispute.