Pensioner Loses Copyright Fight Over Wolves Logo

15 May 2019, 17:20

A pensioner who said he designed a Wolverhampton Wanderers shirt motif when a teenage schoolboy has lost a High Court copyright fight.

Retired building industry manager Peter Davies, 71 said he drew the wolf head design in the early 1960s after a teacher asked him to demonstrate an understanding of Blaise Pascal's Hexagrammum Mysticum Theorem, and entered it in an art competition advertised in the Wolverhampton Express & Star newspaper.

He made a copyright claim and wanted compensation.

Bosses at the Premier League football club denied Mr Davies' claim and on Wednesday a judge ruled against him.

Mr Justice Nugee, who had overseen a High Court trial in London, said Mr Davies would have to pick up his lawyers' bills, plus lawyers' bills run up by Wolves.

Lawyers estimated that the total could be around £450,000.

Mr Davies, who comes from Wolverhampton but now lives in Stourport, Worcestershire, said he recognised his drawing in 1979 when he noticed that Wolves' new kit bore a wolf head logo.

He suggested that the designer of the 1979 motif had links to art competition judges.

Club bosses said the 1979 logo had been designed by graphic designer Ian Jackson and "revamped" by designer Jonathan Russell in 2002.

They said there was no reason why either designer would have copied Mr Davies' "alleged design".

Mr Jackson, who is now in his 80s, told the judge that he would never copy anyone else's work and said it was "impossible" that he could have seen Mr Davies' schoolboy drawing.

The judge concluded that Mr Jackson had not copied Mr Davies' drawing.

He said Mr Davies had faced "insuperable obstacles" in proving his claim.

Lawyers representing Wolves had last year tried to have the case thrown out after arguing there was "no reasonable cause of action".