CorpComms Magazine

I hear Simon Cowell is in someone's bad books.

It's not so much him, it's his show.

Who has the show upset?

A music charity that works with vulnerable children and children with disabilities.

What has X Factor done wrong?

Well a girl group from the show tried to register its name as Rhythmix, which was already the trademark name of the charity in question. So the charity enlisted legal help to try and convince the band to change their name.

So what is happening now?

Now the charity is angling for compensation from the show for the costs it incurred in the legal battle.

How much are we talking?

The dispute over the group that is now called Little Mix allegedly cost the charity £8,000.

How do they plan on recovering the costs?

The charity is appealing to the public encouraging them to boycott the public vote and text the charity instead of taking part in the X Factor phone in. Supporters of the charity Rhythmix can text RTMX11 £1 to 70070 and donate £1 as part of its #CowellMustPay Twitter campaign.

They seem pretty annoyed.

Yes. Mark Davyd, chief executive of Rhythmix, said: 'We have been forced into defending our trademark because Syco (Simon Cowell) just would not listen to us...they forced a charity that for 12 years has quietly worked with vulnerable children to spend this money.'

For such a popular show, I wouldn't have thought £8,000 would be an issue.

Apparently it is equivalent to just a few seconds of advertising revenue from the show.

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