Cambridge 'Rear of the Year' competition caught out over trademark infringement

The owner of "Rear of the Year" trademark hits out at "The Cambridge Tab"

An online magazine run by students at Cambridge University has been forced to rename its “Rear of the Year” competition after a trademark infringement.

The Cambridge Tab has been running a competition in which readers are invited to pick which bottom out of 10 contestants deserved the title of “Rear of the Year” for 2013.

However, a national, trademarked “Rear of the Year” competition, which has been running since 1976, has since demanded that The Tab change the name of its competition, accusing the online magazine of copyright infringement.

In a statement issued yesterday, Tony Edwards, the organiser of the official Rear of the Year awards, said that “the publishers of the student website had been instructed to delete all reference to the protected title and had unreservedly agreed to comply.”

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Edwards added: “On a personal level, I find it depressing that these people don’t appear to have the creativity and imagination to do something original instead of resorting to copy-cat versions of national promotions.”

The Cambridge Tab said that it has changed the name of its competition to “avoid being sued”, and that it is now entitled “Best Bums”.

A writer on The Cambridge Tab website added: “We would like to apologise to Mr Edwards for accidentally abusing his trademark.”