Wagatha Christie trademark registration

The libel case involving football players’ wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney resulted in what the BBC called a “humour” trademark registration.

The dispute between the two personalities began in 2019 when Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking posts from her private Instagram account to The Sun. Vardy subsequently sued Rooney for libel in 2020 and the case was heard in May 2022. Unfortunately for her, Vardy’s claim was dismissed by the court on the basis that Rooney’s statements were substantially true. The case was widely relayed by media as the parties are what the British media called “WAGs” (Wives and Girlfriends of high profile sportsmen) and, because of the steps taken by Rooney to investigate, the case became popular and known as the “Wagatha Christie” case.

The BBC reported that following her defeat in July 2022 when the case was dismissed, Vardy decided to trademark the phrase “Wagatha Christie” and applied for it to be registered in the UK in August 2022. The trademark was then officially registered in April 2023 and includes everything from broadcasting to beauty lotions to stationery, jewellery or even fashion design.

In simple words, a trademark encompasses a wide range of different distinguishing signs such as any words, phrase, symbol, design or a combination of all of these that identifies a good or service. Registering a trademark provides the owner with an exclusive right to use the registered trademark and it can be licensed to someone else in exchange of payment. The owner of the trademark will also have legal certainty in the event of dispute.

By registering the “Wagatha Christie” trademark, Vardy managed to pay off her legal costs from the trial as it was reported that the court ordered her to pay 90% of Rooney’s legal fees of circa £1.5million. This is because anyone who wishes to use the expression in a commercial way will have to get Vardy’s permission and pay her and this dispute was not only reported in the news, it was also adapted into a play and a TV show called “Vardy v Rooney: a courtroom drama” on channel 4.

This is a great example of how registering a trademark could be useful in protecting its owner’s rights but also turn out to be quite lucrative.

For further advice and assistance please contact our Buisness Services team on 01604 828282 / 01908 660966 or email info@franklins-sols.co.uk