EU court tackles Ballon D’or dispute
The owners of the naming rights to football’s top award won a key revocation but lost others.
In a partial loss for the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the EU General Court has annulled its decision revoking the EU trademark Ballon D’or in respect of entertainment services.
The EU General court handed down its decision in Case T-478/21, Les Éditions P Amaury v EUIPO yesterday, July 6.
Developed by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon D'Or award honours the male and female football players deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by journalists, coaches, and captains of national teams.
The court did uphold the revocation of the mark for services consisting in the broadcasting or production of television programmes, the production of shows or films and the publication of books, magazines or newspapers.
French company Les Éditions P Amaury, which holds the rights relating to ‘Ballon D'or’, obtained registration of an EU trademark at the EUIPO in respect of the word sign.
The registration related to printed matter, books and magazines, as well as services consisting in the organisation of sports competitions and awarding of trophies, entertainment, the broadcasting or production of television programmes, the production of shows or films and the publication of books, magazines or newspapers.
An error in law
In 2017, UK company Golden Balls filed an application with EUIPO for revocation of the Ballon D’or mark on the basis of non-use, according to the EU trademark regulation.
In 2021, EUIPO revoked that mark for all the goods and services in respect of which it had been registered, with the exception of printed matter, books and magazines, and services relating to the organisation of sports competitions and awarding of trophies.
Les Éditions P Amaury appealed against the decision.
The General Court ruled that the Ballon D’or award ceremony must be classified as an entertainment service and that, in finding that Les Éditions P Amaury had not supplied such a service in the context of the use of that mark, the EUIPO had erred.
Consequently, the court annulled the EUIPO’s decision, revoking the mark at issue in respect of entertainment services.
Annulment action
The court also emphasised that the rights of the proprietor of an EU trademark are to be declared to be revoked, on application to EUIPO, if, within a continuous period of five years, the trademark has not been put to genuine use in the EU in connection with the goods or services in respect of which it is registered.
The court found that the diffusion of television programmes forms part of telecommunications services, all of which must allow at least one person to communicate with another by sensory means.
Les Éditions P Amaury had not demonstrated that it maintained a telecommunications network that could be used by others, said the court. Secondly, the ruling found that the company did not provide TV programmes, the production of shows and films, or the publication of books, magazines and newspapers, under the contested mark.
Accordingly, the court ruled that the company did not establish genuine use of the mark in connection with those services, with the result that the court upheld the EUIPO’s revocation in respect of those services.
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