INTA 2014: FIFA explains World Cup preparations
The legal counsel for the organisers of this year's football World Cup has admitted there is a “lot of work to be done” to ensure adequate trademark protection is in place.
Speaking at the INTA annual meeting in Hong Kong, Daniel Zohny, legal counsel at FIFA, gave an insight into the organisation's preparations ahead of the tournament.
Explaining FIFA's “ongoing work”, Zohny said efforts to protect the FIFA brand and its multiple trademarks were a continuous cycle, encapsulating 17 tournaments across the globe.
Operations are split into categories, brand protection and trademark registration, which have five and six members respectively.
“The brand protection strategy depends on what the brand is, where the tournament is, and the magnitude of the tournament,” said Zohny, who added that the men's World Cup, hosted by Brazil this year, was the most significant.
“There is a lot of work on the ground in Brazil at the moment but there is a lot of work to be done,” Zohny said.
The tournament is set to be viewed by hundreds of millions of people around the world and Zohny said the country was proving problematic for infringement.
“In a World Cup year, there are tons and tons of infringement cases, especially in South America, which is proving a problematic jurisdiction.”
However, Zohny added that the organisation was taking a cautious approach when looking for cases of infringement.
“There are so many people around the world who love football, so you have to be mindful of enforcement and try to not be a bully,” said Zohny.
“A lot of people just do not know that they are not supposed to be doing what they are doing (using a registered trademark or brand).”
For its tournaments, which include the Club World Cup and Women's World Cup, FIFA has 13,000 registered trademarks, with a further 900 pending, stretching across 38 classes.
While that may seem like a lot, said Zohny, there is also a need to protect all FIFA's partners and sponsors, which include Coca Cola and Visa “in all their activities” as well as FIFA itself.
However, as well as monitoring its existing trademarks, Zohny says there are still many examples of older trademarks being infringed due to FIFA's tendency to keep them registered beyond the close of tournaments.
Zohny said: “There are still still goods being made and sold with the 1990 World Cup trademark; we maintain marks for a long time so there is ongoing work in that field as well.”
The 136th INTA annual meeting starts today, May 11, and closes on Wednesday May 14.
