Doctor Who: 10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About The TARDIS

2. The BBC And The Metropolitan Police Had A Patent War Over It

The Mackenzie-Trench style police box that the TARDIS emulated originally in 1963 has now, in the wake of the police box€™s obsolescence, become almost exclusively associated with Doctor Who and the TARDIS rather than with the Metropolitan Police, who first introduced the police boxes in England in 1928. Once the police boxes started being phased out in the 70s and 80s, the blue police box image and Doctor Who became more and more intertwined as its association with law enforcement dwindled with the diminishing presence of the boxes on the streets. The BBC decided to try and make this official in 1996 by applying for a trademark to use the police box design in Doctor Who merchandising. As they'd been using the TARDIS in merchandise for decades at this point, it shouldn€™t have been much of a big deal, but in 1998, the Metropolitan Police issued an objection to the trademark, claiming ownership of exclusive rights. The matter was settled in 2002 when the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC, since the police never actually had any copyright claims on the design. So, in effect, the BBC now has exclusive ownership of the very police box design that inspired the TARDIS all those years ago in 1963, showing once again the overriding popularity of the TARDIS image in today's world. Amen to that.