UK Labour is trying to stop supporters of a breakaway Scottish Labour Party from registering the name as a trademark.

Labour councillor Dennis Goldie applied last year to secure the name Scottish Labour Party in the hope it would be used by a new stand-alone organisation.

Goldie, who was three times provost in Falkirk and twice its council leader, wanted to gift the trademark to the leader of Scottish Labour in the event of a general election drubbing.

He admitted the £500 application to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which was paid for by a local Labour club, would be a "surprise" to HQ, but said it was "done to be helpful".

However the UK Labour Party has now raised an objection with the IPO.

It was submitted by a London-based firm, Labour Party Nominees Ltd, which controls the party's property and assets, and has UK general secretary Iain McNicol as a director.

Goldie, who nominated Jim Murphy as Scottish leader last year, applied to register the trademark after realising Scottish Labour had never safeguarded its own name.

Covering electronic and printed material, clothing, badges, fundraising, and political activity, the trademark was intended to protect the name being hijacked by opponents.

But Goldie was clear he also wanted to obtain the name to make it easier for Scottish Labour to break from UK Labour and become fully autonomous.

"In the country at large, there probably is a view that the Scottish Labour Party should be independent of the national Labour Party," he told the Sunday Herald at the time.

The SNP said UK Labour's latest interference was typical of its heavy-handed approach.

SNP MSP James Dornan said: "This is further evidence that their 'branch office' status is embedded in the party structure. The longer Labour at Westminster is pulling the strings, the harder it will be for Labour in Scotland to even begin to address their issues."

Before the election, Goldie and colleagues were almost alone in calling for a stand-alone Scottish Labour operation, however the party's near wipe-out on May 7 has changed that.

UK leadership candidate Andy Burnham and former Scottish leader Johann Lamont have both said there is "a case" for a separate party, while former Labour home secretaries Charles Clarke and Jack Straw actively advocate the idea.

In the race to be Scottish Labour deputy, Alex Rowley has also backed a separate party.

However leadership hopefuls Kezia Dugdale and Ken Macintosh oppose the idea.

in 2011, MSP Murdo Fraser ran for the leadership of the Scottish Tories arguing his party needed to be fully independent, but was defeated by Ruth Davidson, who disagreed.

Goldie failed to return numerous phone calls.

A Labour spokesman said: "The Scottish Labour Party is at its best when we work together with friends and colleagues across the whole of the UK Labour Party. The old trade union slogan applies to our country as much as to our party - unity is strength."