FOOTBALL SUPERSTAR LIONEL MESSI has won a nine-year legal battle to register his name as a trademark, with the European Union’s top court ruling in his favour.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg dismissed an appeal moved by a Spanish cycling company Massi and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) over trademark rights related to his logo.
The Barcelona footballer first applied to trademark his surname as a sportswear brand in 2011.
But Massi argued the similarity between their logos would cause confusion. Massi, which sells cycle clothing and equipment, was successful in its initial challenge to the Argentina and Barcelona striker’s application. But it lost out when Messi brought an appeal to the EU’s General Court in 2018, which ruled that the footballer was too well known for confusion to arise.
The ECJ ruled that the star player’s reputation could be taken into account when weighing up whether the public would be able to tell the difference between the two brands.
The Court added that the name Messi is the last name of a world-famous football player, and a celebrity has the right to register his products in his own name.
