Trademarks sought for 25 Ken Dodd catchphrases

Up to 25 catchphrases from Liverpool-born comic Ken Dodd could soon be trademarked, his widow has confirmed.

Lady Anne Dodd, who met the entertainer in the 1970s, before marrying him two days before his death in 2018, has filed papers looking to trademark old favourites such as "the Diddymen", "tattyfilarious" and the "Tickling Stick".

If approved, Lady Anne and her firm, Knotty Ash Productions, would have exclusive rights to use or license them for a fee.

Speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside, Lady Anne said her efforts were to ensure "Ken's creations don't disappear".

Registering a trademark allows people or businesses legally protect their ideas or brand from being used without permission.

It also allows them to put a registered trademark symbol on their products to show ownership and warn others not to copy or use it.

The move by Ken Dodd's team follows other recognisable names in the public eye, including St Helens-born darts player Luke Littler who last month attempted to trademark his face.

The move is intended to prevent his face being reproduced, including by generative AI, without permission.

Lady Anne said her late husband was still performing within the last three months of his life.

"It's not that long since he was performing to full houses. So there are still people around and it's not as though it's ancient.

"It's still very recent so [a trademark would] sort of keep it in the eye," she said.

Lady Anne was named a Citizen of Honour by Liverpool City Council in January last year for her charitable work and contributions to the city.

Her late husband also held numerous titles, including a knighthood in 2017 and a Guinness World Record - after he told a record 1,500 jokes in a near four hour session at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool.

Lady Anne admitted it was hard whittling the breadth of her late husband's catchphrases to just 25 but added Knotty Ash, both a suburb of Liverpool and mythical home of his 'Diddymen', could not make the list despite it reaching some unusually high up places.

She recalled an anecdote from Prince Charles who once asked a group of women on a tour of Balmoral where they were from.

"They replied 'Knotty Ash', and he said 'Oh I thought that was a figment of Ken Dodd's imagination!'".

"You can't really trademark it because it already exists but in a way he brought it to the national knowledge, as it were."

Aside from catchphrases, Lady Anne said Dodd had been remembered in other ways - notable the gardens of the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Merseyside which was funded by the Dodd estate.

A mosaic of Ken Dodd is also being made at the site, which will be a "more permanent" stamp of his legacy on the performing arts across both the North West and Britain as a whole, she said.

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