Arsenal will no doubt appeal, but the new ruling does at least give us a period of increased faith in the justice system.

The High Court first found in Mr Reed's favour back in April. But Arsenal took their campaign into Europe, where they found a simplistic interpretation of trademark legislation worthy of UEFA themselves.

Mr Justice Laddie, who made the April ruling in Reed's favour, reasserted yesterday that Arsenal logos etc on Reed's products were being used as "badges of allegiance" rather than trademarks and (crucially, in our eyes) there is no confusion in the minds of Reed's customers as to whether his products are official merchandise or not. Duh!

He also said that the European courts exceeded their authority in ruling that Reed had infringed Arsenal's copyright. They should only have advised the British High Court with their interpretation of the law, to assist it (him) with a final ruling.

Despite the ruling, Arseweb will not be rushing to put official Arsenal logos on our pages. Our situation is unlike Reed's in that despite our best efforts, readers do occasionally mistake us for the club. I know, it baffles me too. Most of them are from overseas and of course the contrast between Arseweb and the official site is less obvious than that between Reed's trestle tabel out in the cold and the club shop down the road. Ok, maybe only a little less obvious.

We do of course always send these misguided individuals straight to the excellent official site, who provide a quite different but (at least) equally valuable service.

Oh yeah, by the way, all the Nike replica Arsenal kit sold through the Arseweb shop is official merchandise. And it's sent out promptly and postage-free anywhere in the world. Xmas orders have gone through the roof again (thank you, everybody) thanks largely to a huge number of satisfied customers coming back.

And just in case they're wondering.... if Arsenal decide to start selling stuff with Arseweb's logo on it, that's absolutely fine by us.