The battle between the Rhythmix charity and the ‘X-Factor’ machine is seemingly at an end, after the flagging TV enterprise pledged to make a donation to the charitable organisation to help cover legal costs run up during the Rhythmix name dispute.
As much previously reported, the Rhythmix charity approached ‘X’ chiefs after a girl group created on the show chose to perform using their name. Although the Rhythmix charity only owned the trademark in that word in the educational space, it works on music education projects, and feared that if ‘X’ bosses trademarked the word in the music domain it would hinder their fund-raising efforts.
‘X’ chiefs were initially unhelpful, passing the matter onto their lawyers and basically saying “see you in court”, forcing the Rhythmix charity to take expensive legal advice. But eventually, after an online campaign and two open letters to Simon Cowell by the charity’s CEO Mark Davyd, TV chiefs announced their girl group would change its name to Little Mix and, after another push, confirmed they were withdrawing their trademark application for the name.
But, because of the way they initially responded, by this point Rhythmix had legal bills of £8000. Davyd called for ‘X’ producers to contribute towards those costs, so that cost of the legal battle wouldn’t stop his organisation’s work with disadvantaged young people. With the ‘X’ team again slow to respond, a PR firm called Unity donated its time to the charity and launched an online campaign urging those who usually vote in the telly talent contest using ITV’s premium phone lines to instead call a special premium number that would donate a pound to the Rhythmix charity.
But on Friday the charity was able to call that campaign to a close, after Simon Cowell’s Syco company made a contribution to the organisation. In a statement Rhythmix said it wishes “Little Mix the best in their endeavours on the ‘X Factor’ and would like to thank Syco for their donation and for withdrawing their trademark application. [We would also] like to thank all the members of the public who supported the charity in seeking to resolve this matter, and to thank Unity PR”.
Davyd added: “We are very pleased this has been brought to an amicable conclusion. These are difficult times for charities and other third sector organisations, and we are very pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with Syco to put this matter behind us”.
Sections: Media - Top Stories | Tags: Little Mix, Mark Davyd, Rhythmix, Simon Cowell, Syco, X-Factor
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