Welcome to Piettodrie
Club bosses trademark name over fears their pastries will be piejacked
Aberdeen have become the first Scottish football club to trademark all the pies.
The Dons have applied to London’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to trademark the name Pittodrie Pie as their own.
The club can sell up to 12,000 at a game when their home ground is packed to capacity.
The pastries are made by local firm Thain’s and the club say they moved to protect their brand when they heard rumours a previous supplier was trying to do the same. A spokesman for Aberdeen said: “We changed supplier in the summer and the previous supplier were about to register the Pittodrie Pie so it was just to protect ourselves.
“As we saw with the Kilmarnock Pie, they faced losing the rights to the Killie Pie because the company that supplied it sought the trademark.”
He added that it meant they could continue using the name Pittodrie Pie for the future even if “we might not be with the same supplier ad infinitum”.
Aberdeen have a cat er ing partnership with Sodexo, who get their pies from Thain’s.
They launched a competition for fans to pick the winning recipe.
The club’s spokesman said: “I wouldn’t have thought everybody has a pie at a game but some of them would have two.
“The club expect to sell between 11,000 and 12,000 pies at a game when he have an 18,000 crowd – such as against Celtic.
“We try to minimise wastage wherever possible and try to make sure we don’t run out of stock. “
Murdoch Allan, 42, boss of Thain’s, said: “I think it’s a good idea by the club – they needed to protect their intellectual property. I have been a fan of the club since I was a boy.”
The application, which appeared in
We can sell up to 12,000 pies at a game so we try to ensure we don’t run out of stock
the latest Trademark Journal, covers pies, bridies, pizzas, rel ishes and even cakes. The Aberdeen spokesman added: “We sometimes do have speciality pies but research shows that if you give too much choice, you have problems with people taking too long to be served.” The IPO said there were two months to object after initial examination. Earlier this year Brownings the Bakers, makers of the Killie Pie, claimed they had sole use of the name. Kilmarnock FC challenged the Ayrshire f irm because they already had a prior claim, having trademarked “Killie” for club merc merchandise in 1998. Br Brownings have now renamed thei their snacks – avai lable at sho shops around the country – KilmarnockKi Pies. They will also be available in En England in time for Scotland tak taking on the Auld Enemy in No November at Wembley.