A new name in the frame for press watchdog

WHAT’S in a name? The Press Complaints Commission’s rechristening looks to be drawing ever closer, after its funding body applied to trade mark the name of its possible replacement.

The Press Standards Board of Finance, which charges newspapers the levy used to fund the PCC, applied to trade mark “Independent Press Standards Organisation” at the end of last month.

The Capitalist’s occasional trawl of the official Trade Marks Journal (it’s a scintillating read, for those with a few hours to spare) has revealed that the board has applied to use the IPSO name for, among other things, “services of a professional regulator”.

Legal services, drafting of regulations and lobbying would also be permitted under the requested trade mark remit.

The board owns no other trade marks, but has also filed applications for an Americanised version of the same name and the IPSO acronym.

Jim Raeburn, secretary of the board, said the filings were made as part of “routine legal checks” being made on “a number of names that are being considered”.

The Press Complaints Commission, which is run separately from its financing board, would not comment.

Invitations to the naming ceremony are presumably in the post for politicians, including the three major party leaders, who called for the PCC to close in the wake of last year’s Leveson inquiry.

That said, with the final name of the regulator somewhat up in the air, perhaps the PCC is still planning to turn to some of the more snappy headline writers among its members for final inspiration.