Oxford left feeling blue
The Oxford Blue, long recognised as the award for the University's best sportspeople, when they compete against Cambridge, has recently lost its coveted status.
Oxford University lost a court battle in early April against HS Tank, a small Birmingham-based company, which registered the name, Oxford Blue, as a trademark in 1994.
The University claims that the prestige of the Oxford Blue has been jeopardised by the way that a company with no links to Oxford could benefit from the name.
However, Victor Cogger, chief executive of HS Tank, told The OxStu: "it didn't cross our minds that the name had anything to do with Oxford University when we started the company." He insisted the idea for the brand came from the name of a horse in 1985.
Cogger also told The OxStu that he had no intention of creating a rift between his firm and Oxford University. However he added: "I can't believe that the University, which has been awarding the Blue for over a century, didn't think about buying the name as a trademark in all that time."
Kathryn Hesketh, vice-captain of the University's Athletics Club, who also holds a women's Blue, told The OxStu: "most students in Oxford know what a real Blue is anyway."
Oxford's female sporting elite will soon have something to show for their achievement. For years, women who have earned an Oxford Blue have had to watch their male counterparts parade around resplendent in their Blues Blazers without their own mark of distinction. Now they will have a golden brooch. Shaped as a University crown, it is gold for a Blue or silver for a Half-Blue and engraved with the year and the sport. Lucinda Orr, President of the Women's Blues Committee 2003-4, and who is the holder of a squash Blue, told The OxStu that the idea had been discussed intermittently for years. "Everyone was always going on about how much they wanted something. It just took a particularly pro-active committee to get it done at last," she adds modestly.
22nd Apr 2004