FIFA hails relationship with Russia’s IP office ahead of World Cup

A senior counsel at FIFA has hailed its working relationship with Russia’s intellectual property office, as the country prepares to host the next World Cup.

Daniel Zohny, senior legal counsel, intellectual property at FIFA, said relations with Russia’s Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) were “very good”.

Explaining how FIFA and Rospatent work together, Zohny said: “We might checklist the goods and services before we file in order to figure out whether there are issues.”

Zohny said the trademark team has to think “strategically” about jurisdictions when it files its marks.

“The time window from launching a mark to the tournament is often very short. That’s something we constantly struggle with—to be able, by the time the tournament starts, to enforce them if necessary,” he added.

Zohny revealed that FIFA currently has 13,500 trademark applications and around 300 design applications pending in 157 countries. Brazil, the host of the 2014 World Cup, is where it has the most registrations.

“The most registrations we have are in Brazil due to the fact that it’s a very important market and also because the last FIFA World Cup was hosted in Brazil in 2014,” he said.

Zohny was speaking to WIPR as part of a wider interview on the trademark strategies at the Switzerland-based organisation. The full interview will be published on worldipreview.com at a later date.