'Never treated me the same since': The legal dispute at the centre of the Beckham feud

Brooklyn Beckham's stunning statement left a lot of questions unanswered.

Aside from the obvious question of what the hell has gone on to cause such a nuclear escalation, there was one in particular we wanted answered.

What did Brooklyn mean when he said his parents had "repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe" him into "signing away the rights" to his name?

Criminal lawyer and author Jahan Kalantar tells nine.com.au it was most likely related to trademarks and intellectual property.

"It has to be about intellectual property rights and certainly the underlying brand value that is attached to the Beckham name," he explained.

"Intellectual property is a subset of the law that protects people who bring an idea to life ... the law protects your right to benefit from the value it's generated.

"Trademark is the right to use a certain name in a certain context because you have done work to establish an identity in that space."

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We now know Victoria Beckham solely owns the trademark to Brooklyn Beckham's name, and it was set to expire this year, as reported in the Daily Mail.

When the trademark expires in December, Brooklyn would be free to renew his own trademark with his own legal team.

"'They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because when the terms of the deal would be initiated," Brooklyn said in his statement.

"My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since."

Kalatar says "signing away" the rights to your name in a legal capacity could impact Brooklyn's future – as well as Nicola's, as she is now a Beckham by name.

It would give David and Victoria the right to decide which of Brooklyn and Nicola's business ventures have the Beckham name attached to it.

"We don't know what projects were in the pipeline for Brooklyn. We don't know if there were brand deals, we don't know if he's gonna go up and start his own label," he said.

"We don't know what he would or wouldn't do with his own name on his own."

Brooklyn already has a number of business ventures, including his hot sauce Cloud23 – the 23 a clear reference to his father's football jersey number – an upcoming burger restaurant called Beck's Buns, and his online cooking series Cookin' with Brooklyn.

"He also arguably has a claim to the Beckham name because it's his name, and as a member of the Beckhams, he might be able to assert that, 'Actually, that intellectual property is mine'," he added.

"What they may have been trying to do is get him to sign those rights to them to say, 'To the extent that this happens in this particular way, we control what can be done with that brand."

Whether or not Victoria and David respond with legal action is not something anyone can predict; however, Kalantar says they would be within their rights to do so – even if that would not be a good look for them.

"I imagine the Beckhams are looking at this through a number of different lenses, such as public relations, brand strategy and [they're] also definitely getting some legal advice," he adds.

"The options would be available to them to take some form of legal action, but what that looks like at this stage is unclear because we don't know how accurate what Brooklyn has said is.

"We also don't know if they're gonna counter it in the public eye or via lawyers... we simply don't know."