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Intellectual Property, especially trademarks, play an important role in protecting the names and logos of major international sporting events, such as the UEFA European Football Championships (the Euros), the Wimbledon Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n
In particular, trademark rights provide the basis for sponsorship, endorsement and merchandising agreements, which, in turn, provide lucrative sources of income for the organisers of these events. In fact, without the income from international companies wishing to associate their products and services with these international sporting events, it is fair to say that many of them could not be organised and staged.<\/p>\n
Having trademark protection of these events also discourages so-called \u2018ambush marketing\u2019 of them by unauthorised third parties, claiming an association with them to which they are not entitled and for which they have not paid anything at all. See the earlier post on \u2018Combatting Ambush Marketing in Switzerland<\/em>\u2019 in the NEWS section of this website. This is particularly relevant to the forthcoming Women\u2019s Euro 2025 Tournament that takes place in Switzerland in July.<\/p>\n UEFA sought legal protection, in 2012, of the marks associated with EURO 2024, which was held in Germany, by registering the following trademarks:<\/p>\n These registrations were followed by filings for stylised\/device marks reflecting the branding that UEFA used across the event.<\/p>\n For example, in 2019, UEFA registered the blue EURO2024 logo and the pink and blue logo, both shown below:<\/p>\n Again, take the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, for example, the organisers of this prestigious event, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, have always been proactive in their trademark strategy, by registering many trademarks for relevant word and logo marks.<\/p>\n However, the Club only secured trademark protection for its historic and distinctive colour mark in 2016, more than a century after it first started using that colour mark in 1909.\u00a0Prior to that, the lack of such legal protection had prevented the Club from taking action against unauthorised use by third parties of its signature colours on ticket resale platforms, which were attempting to pass themselves off as being connected with the official Wimbledon Tournament, when this was not, in fact, the case.<\/p>\n To secure protection of a colour mark is\u00a0notoriously difficult<\/a>\u00a0and the Club had to go to great lengths to obtain a registration for the green and purple colour way as\u00a0shown below:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This included providing\u00a0evidence of use<\/a>\u00a0in the form of a detailed survey, showing that consumers associated these colours with the Wimbledon Tournament and a substantial amount of pictorial evidence, dating back to the early 1900s, showing use of the green and purple colourway. Initially unsuccessful, the Club finally, on 24 June 2016, was able to satisfy the UK Intellectual Property Office that the distinctive character of its dark green and purple colourway had been established through its continuous use.<\/p>\n Another example of the importance of protecting the marks of sports events names and logos is provided by the Tour de France\u00a0and the recent case of Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 du Tour de France v. EUIPO \u2013 FitX (TOUR DE X)<\/em> (Case T-604\/22).<\/p>\n In that case, the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9, which owns the Tour de France trademarks, relied upon its European Trademark (EUTM) rights, namely, ‚Tour de France‘\u00a0and ‚Le Tour de France‘, to oppose an application by the German gym chain, FitX, to register the figurative mark \u2018Tour de X\u2019 at the European IP Office (EUIPO), claiming the likelihood of confusion. The Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 argued not only that consumers would confuse the German brand\u2019s products with its famous multi-stage cycle race and, consequently, associate the two, but also that there was a risk that its use would damage – or benefit from – the reputation of the prestigious cycling event.<\/p>\n However, the European Union General Court disagreed, the judges concluding that:<\/p>\n \u201cThe public will not confuse the marks despite the identity or similarity of the goods and services<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, the Court held that the enhanced distinctiveness, acquired through use and the reputation of the earlier rights ‚Tour de France‘ and ‚Le\u00a0Tour de France‘,\u00a0did not extend to the element common to the rights in issue, namely, the element \u2018Tour de\u2019.<\/p>\n The Court also confirmed that ‚Tour de France‘\u00a0is certainly a unique enough phrase to be deserving of trademark protection in the sports and apparel markets, but ‚Tour de‘ on its own was not.<\/p>\n Finally, to the Olympics and Paralympics and the importance of trademarks, in particular, in the fight against the pernicious practice of \u2018ambush marketing\u2019.<\/p>\n On 19 July 2024, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC)\u00a0took legal proceedings in Colorado<\/a>\u00a0against Prime Hydration, the drinks company owned by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI, claiming infringement of its trademarks\u00a0resulting from Prime using the phrases ‚Olympic‘, ‚Olympian‘, ‚Team USA‘\u00a0and ‚Going for Gold‘\u00a0on its latest packaging and promotional materials, which also featured Kevin Duran, the US athlete and Olympic basketball team member.<\/p>\n In particular, the USOPC lawsuit stated as follows:<\/p>\n \u201cPrime used the goodwill associated with USOPC\u2019s intellectual property to sell and promote its products and its brand. This solicitation is evidenced by the defendant\u2019s blatant use of USOPC\u2019s intellectual property online and use of USOPC\u2019s intellectual property on actual product<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n We advise on Intellectual Property matters in relation to sport, including disputes, and further information may be obtained by emailing either Dr Lucien Valloni, our Managing Partner, or Professor Dr Ian Blackshaw, our International Sports Law Consultant, who is the author of the Book on \u2018Sports Marketing Agreements: Legal, Fiscal and Practical Aspects\u2019, at valloni@valloni.ch<\/a> and blackshaw@valloni.ch<\/a> respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Intellectual Property, especially trademarks, play an important role in protecting the names and logos of major international sporting events, such as the UEFA European Football Championships (the Euros), the Wimbledon Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In particular, trademark rights…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-de"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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