X Factor girl group Rhythmix may have had their name changed to Little Mix, but the X Factor row between music charity Rythmix and the company that Simon Cowell largely owns - Simco - is far from over.
In an exclusive blog on The Huffington Post UK, Rythmix's chief executive, Mark Davyd, today accused Simco of "letting a children's charity whistle for eight grand and telling them to keep their mouths shut".
It's a costly battle of David and Goliath, that Davyd believes is being whitewashed by "semi-correct, partially misleading PR statements" from those in charge of the X Factor.
Previously, an open letter to Simco, published on Facebook on 26 October, prompted a change of name for X Factor girl band Rhythmix to Little Mix, after Davyd pleaded for Simco to "sort this problem out in the quickest and simplest way."
However, what was forced to remain under wraps, until Davyd's HuffPost blog, was that Simco changed the name on the condition that Davvyd and Rhythmix: "would refrain from any derogatory comments about them/Syco/Simco/TalkbackTHAMES/X Factor going forward."
Yesterday Davyd wrote another open letter to Simco, in which he invited the X Factor's corporate advertisers to cut three seconds off their commercials to help the charity cover the £8,000 legal costs they had incurred in the fight to keep their charity's name.
"Unfortunately, whilst your company Simco and your programme The X Factor have managed to stage a PR event publicly changing the name of your contestants," he continued, "actually the legal position hasn't changed at all, and neither has the outcome for the charity."
In his HuffPost blog Davyd also suggests Simco is either hoping to change Little Mix's name back to Rhythmix in the future, or hopes to use their control of the identity to force the charity to accept its terms and conditions.
Davyd wrote: "Somebody at Syco/X Factor/whoever these people are… presumably said 'let's work out if there is a way in trademark law we could get that name off them and make sure it's legally watertight so we can control the identity in full and lay out weird terms and conditions for allowing their continued existence.'"
The Huffington Post UK tried to contact representatives for Syco in the UK for a response, but at the time of going to press no response had been given.
UPDATE 21:02: A spokesperson for Syco has now said: "Syco are happy to withdraw the application for the trademark, as initially offered at the time of the name change to Little Mix.
"Syco have in fact been asked not to do this by the charity. We remain happy to withdraw it and we do not intend to use this name at any time in the future. We conclude this matter is closed.”