Simon Cowell's company has agreed to make a donation to a music charity that successfully forced an X Factor act to change its name.

The charity, claimed the trademark row had cost it £8,000.

The charity, had argued X Factor's use of the name would cause confusion.


Seems to me the charity were just chancing that the Xfactor would settle rather than get bad publicity

There is about ZERO chance of consusion between a girl singing group and a childrens charity.

ridiculous, give it to children in need.

what cost them £8k, they only wrote a letter to the press and they changed their name straight away.

And they got loads of publicity out of it, even an advert on local tv would cost thousands

These things very rarely go to court, not much of a gamble.

Some nice publicity for the charity plus 8 grand....pocket change for Cowell.

What a pathetic charity. I'm sorry but these kind of manipulations from charities make me sick. Like when a Hackeny charity demanded Britney Spears make a donation for filming her criminal video in Hackey.

I understand it's for a good cause, but they seem more money hungry than Simon Cowell these days.

I agree.

I am THRILLED that Simco have made this decision! Rhythmix had to engage solicitors to carry out legal works on their behalf before the band changed its name (this started a long time before it all became public) and the legal costs incurred by the charity increased because of Simco's delaying tactics - which were employed because they knew the charity wouldn't be able to continue their defence if Simco just delayed and delayed and delayed. At some point, Rhythmix would HAVE to drop their defence and just change their name - a name that they have used for 12 years, that is established within the community, that has built a reputation for carrying out excellent work.

ANY charity worth its salt would prefer to spend £8000 on their core work - rather than having to spend it on legal fees that have come about because a massive corporation wants its own way.

I am absolutely thrilled that Simco have made this decision - although I am still disgusted that they put a well respected charity in the position they did in the first place!!

I'm sure they will soon find something else to moan about.

The charity are a MUSIC charity. They work with underpriveleged children and children with learning difficulties. They put on concerts and publish recordings made by the children under the name Rhythmix, so there would have been a crossover.

Simco were trying to stop them using the Rhythmix name altogether, so it wasn't just about any possible confusion between the two, it was about Simco trying to basically stop the charity from functioning.

Can you people actually hear yourselves??

What a disgusting attitude!!!!

Take Children in Need as an example. If a group on X Factor decided to call itself Children in Need because they hadn't heard of it, and Simco as a company decided to take legal action to stop Children in Need the charity using the name Children in Need and basically stop them from being able to function would you still be saying these things??

If the band Children in Need then changed its name but left the charity Children in Need with a large legal bill, would you be happy that the money you had donated thinking it was going towards helping children was actually now going to have to be used to pay lawyers?? Of course you wouldn't!!

Because Rhythmix don't have a massive national identity, people consider it appropriate to make these nasty comments about them and the work they do. Whether the work they do is something close to your heart or not, they are a CHARITY!! A not for profit organisation that exists to help people. For heavens sake people, have a heart!!

I went on to the Rhythmix charity fb page to check them out when it all kicked off. They had a post asking for donations towards there legal fees. They were also thanking people who had already donated. What happened to that money. No doubt they will say it was used for the children etc but isnt that pulling the wool over the public's eyes. They had loads of publicity up until the band changed its name. They have to get some more publicity somehow and I bet there funds have increased substantially since XF started. They should have been thankful then. Wonder what they'll come up with next. If they go to far people will realise (hopefully) what they are doing.

If you read it all the way through, you would also have seen them saying straight out that they were asking Simco for a donation to cover the legal costs, and that if that happened all donations made would go towards their core activities. They also wrote 2 open letters to Simco regarding their request for the donation (both of which are on fb - you probably saw them), so lets not pretend that they were trying to shaft anyone!! They were absolutely open that they were seeking the funds from Syco and what would happen to all the money donated by people.

The official statement from Rhythmix:

"Both Syco and Rhythmix have been in touch and this matter has been positively resolved. Syco commends all the good work that Rhythmix does, and are happy to make a donation to the charity. As previously agreed, Syco will also withdraw the application for the trademark. Rhythmix wish Little Mix the best in their endeavours for The X Factor and would like to thank Syco for their donation and for withdrawing their trademark application.

Rhythmix would like to thank all the members of the public who supported the Charity in seeking to resolve this matter, and to thank Unity PR.

Chief Executive Mark Davyd said "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." Mr Davyd confirmed that all donations made to the Charity by the public in the last few weeks would be used to support frontline projects working with vulnerable young people, as was the declared intention during the fundraising campaign"

Rhythmix knew they would get the money from Syco. Everyone knows Simon Cowell is a very charitable man behind all of his nastiness and would never have refused the donation. Why didnt Rhythmix just ask for donations for the charity itself instead of its legal fees. They have asked people for money for one reason and used it for another albeit a good cause. What the money is used for is irrelevant in some peopels eyes. Its the manner of how they have gone about it that people are against. There is no doubt the charity is a great one and that cant be disputed but why do they have to go public every time they send a letter to Syco. I think that is what is causing all the bad feeling

It concerns me that many Charities are resorting to almost blackmail to get money from people. You have the agressive chuggers, shops asking if you want to give your change to charity etc. This in my view is going to far. I now dont give to charities that use chuggers and other agressive means of trying to extract donactions

Giving to charties should be voulantary.The elderly in particular find it difficult not to give when subject to these practises and they may not really be able to afford it. They feel embarissed not to give

What legal fees at most it would have been a letter and I suspect the Charity would have sent that out £10 at most

As a charity, their trustees have a responsibility to make sure all money donated is used appropriately. If they've paid out £8,000 to lawyers (which sounds quite likely) the trustees have a duty to try and recover it so that the costs the charity are paying are minimised.

Registered charities produce accounts that are posted on the Charity Commissioners website, so if anyone is that bothered they can go and check what they spend their money on.

If you think any charity is ripping off the public then you can contact the Charity Commissioners and ask them to investigate.

It would not be illegal for Little Mix touse the Rhymix name as such the Charity would have to prove confusion was likely and as one is a Childrens Charity and the other a Singing Group that would not happen.

The Charity were just chancing it hoping they would pay up toavoid bad publicity. Not a practice I would condone. This Charity will not get any donations from me.

Delete

Well said, Perdita. I'm with you.

They will have had to pay for an opinion from a specialist lawyer before deciding to pursue the issue. Big companies get their own way by making it as costly as possible to challenge them.

I think it's actually dodgy ground legally to accuse a charity of wrongdoing as it would be if you accused a person. The correct route is to contact the charity commissioners with any concerns.

I said the leter would have gone out from the Charity. You dont launch straight into legal action. It would affect the charties small chance of succes unless they at least raised the issue first

They will have had to seek legal addice before and during negotiations with Syco about the name, this won't have been cheap.

ETA: I see this has already been said.

They have taken the course of action because they have had no other choice. This has taken months to resolve - as I said it all started way before all the publicity started. They felt they had no alternative but to go public due to the ongoing stalling tactics Simco's legal team were deploying.

They were very open when they started asking for donations about the fact that they had requested a donation from Simco, but given the previous dealings they had with them it's not an automatic assumption that any funds would be forthcoming (that's only my opinion I have to say. Rhythmix themselves didn't give any indication as to whether they thought the funds would be forthcoming or not). They therefore requested funds. They haven't done anything untoward at all! They openly said that if the donation was received, all funds donated would go towards their core works.

They are a charity. They have to take every chance to increase their coffers to keep going, particularly in the current economic climate. What would people prefer that they did nothing and allowed themselves to be bullied out of existence? Or that they didn't maximise on a fund raising opportunity and weren't able to continue their work due to a lack of funding?? If people don't want to support them, then don't support them. It's not as is if anyone is being forced to donate. I have donated and am very pleased I did. I did so knowing my money was going towards legal fees and not the core business of the charity, but also knowing that should the donation requested of Simco be forthcoming, the money I donated would be put towards an exceptionally good cause instead.

This is the sort of aggressive approachs by Charities I personally find unaccaptable. There was ZERO chance of confusion the charity is stretching credibility to the extreme