FC Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has won a seven-year fight against similar-sounding Spanish brand Massi to be able to use his name on sports goods. Messi's application to trademark his name was made to the European Union Office for Intellectual Property (EUIPO) in 2011.
Lionel Messi Wins Fight To Register Himself As Trademark
Messi is now able to register a trademark under his name. The EU court said that his fame made it unlikely his label would be confused with Massi. The cycling brand, headquartered outside of Barcelona, lodged a complaint against Messi to the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), saying his name was too similar to theirs.
“The football player’s fame counteracts the visual and phonetic similarities between his trade mark and the trade mark ‘MASSI’ belonging to a Spanish company,” the General Court of the European Union, the bloc’s second highest court, said in a statement Thursday.
“EUIPO is wrong to conclude that the use of the trade mark ‘MESSI’ for sports and gymnastics clothing, equipment and protective equipment and instruments could create a likelihood of confusion with the trade mark ‘MASSI’ on the part of consumers,” it said.
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