And the latest Paul is ...?

Cats, however, are never wrong -- and, unlike
octopuses, they have nine lives ...

Today sees the start of the EURO 2012 Football Championships, which are being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. And with it comes the all important question: who is the new Paul? As some of this weblog's regular readers will recall, Paul the Octopus became an international superstar when his feeding behaviour was used to predict correctly the winner of each of the Germany's seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final. Paul was presented with two boxes containing mussel meals, with each box marked on the outside with the flag of a national football team. Whichever meal he ate first was taken as his prediction of a win for the country whose flag was on that box. On the basis of his accurate predictions, Paul was perhaps the strongest brand of the football World Cup 2010 and the subject of numerous trade mark registrations (see posts on the MARQUES Class 46 Blog here, here and here). Unfortunately Paul passed away in October 2010 (amidst conspiracy theories, of course: see earlier Katpost here).

This Kat can tell you that an number of 'psychic animals' have been unveiled for EURO 2012. Yesterday, officials in Kiev revealed that Khryak the hog, also known as Funtik, will make his predictions on EURO 2012 matches by choosing between two plates of food. Not to be outdone, Citta the elephant in Krakow and Fred the ferret in Kharkiv (two other cities set to host matches at the tournament) will also be making predictions. Officials in Kiev said they wanted to bring similar excitement to Ukrainians by bringing the telepathic pig to the city's fan zone before matches.  Svitlana Bovkun, the PR director of the official Kiev Euro 2012 fan zone, is quoted as saying:

"It's a sequel to the legacy of Paul the Octopus. When we faced an issue to choose an animal to be a symbol of the Ukrainian [part of the] championship, the organisers decided to treat the choice with a certain sense of humour, not to be too serious, and since we didn't have too many associations to work with a hog, a pig, is not the worst association. It brings a smile."

Does Fred the ferret have psychic
powers? Merpel wouldn't bet on it ...

This Kat investigated these animal names on the OHIM trade marks database and could not see any relevant trade mark applications for KHRYAK, FUNTIK, CITTA or FRED. Given the brand power of Paul, she finds it strange that none of these names is apparently to be protected by trade mark registrations. Are readers able to help? Does this mean that we are all saved from telepathic animal related documentary films, books and plush toys?

The IPKat and Merpel feel great sympathy for Khryak the hog.  Elephants are usually quite safe from the dinner-plate these days, possibly because it's so difficult to peel them and they take ages to cook, even in the microwave. Ferrets are smaller but don't really feature on the culinary horizon.  If Khyrak gets things wrong, however, he might well be for the chop -- along with any number of unsuccessful international football managers.

Intelligence in pigs here
Intelligence in elephants here
Ferrets in intelligence here and in noses here

A generous katpat to Chris Torrero for bringing this to the IPKat's attention!