The European Trademark Office, OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market), confirmed the position relating to event marks such as 'WM 2006', 'World Cup 2006', 'World Cup Germany', 'Germany 2006' and 'World Cup 2006 Germany' for any commercial purposes in Europe, including host country Germany.
Confectionery company Ferrero had argued that the FIFA trademarks should be declared invalid on the grounds of absence of distinctive character.
OHIM has, however, confirmed FIFA’s registrations in respect of all registered trademarks for all designated categories of products and services.
The OHIM decision comes on the back of two recent German court decisions protecting the rights of soccer's world governing body.
The first decision, passed by a Hamburg Court on October 25, 2005, cancelled Ferrero’s trademark registrations in respect of 11 marks containing the element '2006' or '2010'.
The second, issued by the Hamburg Court on November 3, 2005, prohibited the commercial use of the internet domain name www.wm2006.com by a sports betting company.
Said FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi: “The safeguarding of the commercial rights is essential for the future of a privately financed FIFA World Cup, for the organisers of other major sports events, and for the game of football as a whole.
"The revenue that the FIFA World Cup generates from marketing serves as the basis for FIFA’s extensive range of grassroots development activities.”
