Business Diary: October 12

HE may be the head of the Roman Catholic church, but the Pope still needs protecting from rogue traders who want to misuse his official logo.

A team of Yorkshire-based intellectual property lawyers at DLA Piper helped to safeguard Pope Benedict XVI's image during his recent visit to the UK.

Chris Tulley, a partner at the Leeds office of the global legal practice, provided advice to the Papacy on protecting the official visit logo from imitation, and negotiated the various merchandising agreements for the range of official souvenirs from the events

and masses that took place around the country during the Pope's four day visit.

The instruction came from the Catholic Trust for England and Wales, who are long-standing clients of the Leeds-based law firm, and were given the job of organising the first Papal visit to Britain for almost 30 years.

Mr Tulley said: "This has definitely been one of the most unique instructions we have ever worked on in the team. While the technical aspects of this kind of trade mark protection are the bread and butter of most intellectual property lawyers, acting for the leader of the Catholic Church is more than a little unusual and definitely one for the memoirs."

Christmas crackers

It is only October, but here at the Yorkshire Post we are already being bombarded with Christmas fare.

Following last week's seven-course gastronomic Christmas feast, courtesy of Sainsbury's, Diary is now getting its head round the world of posh Christmas crackers.

Step forward Britain's only privately owned Christmas cracker company, Robin Reed, which supplies the region via Yorkshire Stores in Stokesley, North Yorkshire.

Apparently, the big thing this year will be interactive gifts, such as hand bell crackers. The mind boggles. And the joke voted the funniest for 2010?

What type of pants do clouds wear? Thunderwear...

As for the strangest cracker, forget the festive season. It was for the funeral of a man in Yorkshire who loved Christmas so much that each of the crackers contained a miniature bottle of whisky, which was used to toast the departed.

While the best-selling Robin Reed gift is musical whistles, the least popular was paper pants.

You do wonder why a cracker that costs between 5 and 40 ever contained a pair of paper pants.

Gilt edged

BACON boys Cranswick are so popular in the City that one analyst evens sends out recipes using its products.

In Norman's Nuggets, a weekly round-up of consumer staples companies by Evolution Securities' Jamie Norman, he recommends using six of Cranswick's finest pork sausages in toad in the hole. "It's absolutely wonderful with mashed potato," gushes Norman.

It's no surprise that Hull-based Cranswick is one of the few UK defensive stocks Norman recommends.

"I would avoid UK names apart from Britvic and Cranswick, superbly run and a play on pork, which is extremely competitive versus other meat categories."

Sure enough, the premium pork company continues to bring home the bacon: last week it reported an eight per cent surge in first-half sales.

Food for thought

TOP chef Anthony Flinn may spend his week cooking quality cuisine in his Leeds restaurants but he admits his guilty pleasure is fast food.

"I like going to nice restaurants and eating the best food but I also enjoy KFC," he told Diary.