Puma kicks out at FIFA’s World Cup TM
Puma has challenged the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)’s ownership of its ‘World Cup’ trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), arguing that the words are generic.
In its complaint, filed on November 10, the sportswear company argued that it should be allowed to use the word mark ‘World Cup’ or the ‘World Cup’ plus ‘[year]’ in connection with the promotion and sale of a new clothing collection, its ‘Specially-Made Apparel’.
The German sports brand argued that FIFA’s registration of “World Cup 2022” to cover goods and services associated with the upcoming international association football competition should be cancelled.
This is because the mark is merely descriptive of FIFA’s goods and services and that the association had failed to show that the designation has “acquired distinctiveness as a source identifier for its goods and services”, Puma said.
Puma held that it has numerous sponsorship and endorsement deals with athletes and teams around the world, including those that compete in professional sporting events, tournaments, and leagues and that these events use various descriptions of their scale, scope, or geographic reach of participation. These argued Puma, frequently included the word “World”.
It further argued that there are many high-level global competitions or tournaments that use the designation “World Cup” to describe the event as the top-level global competition or tournament, and that the term “World Cup” refers generically and descriptively to any high-level global competition or tournament involving the world’s best athletes, participants, or teams in a particular sport or field of competitive endeavour.
It held that the term is consequently generic and is unable to identify or distinguish a single event or source of goods or services, arguing that “as a descriptive designation without secondary meaning”, ‘World Cup 2022’ does not distinguish FIFA’s goods and services from those produced, sold, or provided by Puma and others in the sporting goods industry”.
It went on to assert that by claiming exclusive rights to the mark “World Cup 2022,” FIFA had sought to prevent Puma and others from using the descriptive designation, which is necessary to describe their goods and services, including Puma’s ‘Specially-Made Apparel’.
In April, the sports apparel maker filed a series of trademark applications for ‘Puma Tokyo 2021’, ‘Puma Euro 2021’, and ‘Puma Cup 2021’, prompting UEFA to “consider its position” over the trademark applications.
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