'Wagatha Christie' gets another incredible twist as Rebekah Vardy lands lucrative trademark

Rebekah Vardy has trademarked "Wagatha Christie" following her loss to Coleen Rooney last year.

As a reminder for what now feels like a distant memory, in a viral social media post in October 2019, Rooney took to social media in October 2019 and accused Vardy of leaking "false stories" about her private life to the press.

The case was famously dubbed Wagatha Christie.

In yet another spin, Vardy has now trademarked the phrase – despite claims of not coming up with it. Writer and comedian Dan Atkinson claimed he did.

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Tim Carter, the managing associate in Addleshaw Goddard's Intellectual Property team, explained to Sky News that Vardy can now stop third parties from using the phrase.

"I think it would be fair to say that Rebekah Vardy could make a substantial amount of money from this trademark," he told the news outlet.

"The potential for the commercial exploitation of the trade mark is likely substantial considering the continued interest in this case.

"The potential income from licensing the use of the trade mark could easily run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds."

In a much-anticipated ruling last summer, the judge said it was “likely” that Vardy’s agent at the time, Caroline Watt, "undertook the direct act" of passing the information to The Sun.

She added: "Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt."

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