Scoring IP in Football

Sports & Events Management Focus

Scoring IP
in Football

Omar Obeidat
Partner,
Head of Intellectual Property & Competition

The business of football has changed over the years to become a business relying on broadcasting and streaming as well as commercial revenue from franchising and merchandising. This if anything is an even more compelling argument for the football clubs to have a solid trademark portfolio and adequate brand protection. It is not uncommon for football clubs to have a less than organized trademark portfolio or even a significant gap in protecting its brands, as historically most football clubs never registered their trademarks and even when they did, may have failed to protect it on a global scale or even against all relevant goods and services. The world’s most famous club Manchester United registered its first mark in 1970, which is quite late for a club formed in 1878 and adopted its current name in 1902 (Wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C.)  Likewise in the UAE,  one of the most prominent football clubs Al Wasl Al Riyadi, established in 1960 under the name Al Zamalik and rebranded to Al Wasl in 1974, but only secured its first trademark in the UAE in 2011. Al Ain FC was formed in 1968 but filed its first trademark for the club name in 2011. The world renewed Al Ahly FC, the oldest club the Arab world was established in Egypt in 1907 though its first filings appear to be as recent as 2007.  This is a club holding as many titles as enjoying the rank #1 in continental ranking and the world’s highest ranked club not under EUFA. Notwithstanding the late registrations, the club was aggressive in securing the widest scope possible for its trademarks designating good and services in about twenty international classes. Al Ahly FC secured protection across sectors ranging from sports and entertainment, finance, real estate, investments, fashion, sportswear, beverages, technologies, hospitality, and many others.

The Al Nassr Saudi Club where Ronaldo currently plays had a modest single trademark registration back in 2001 but boosted its trademark portfolio in 2022. The KSA Al Hilal Saudi Club dates back to 1957 with first filing of a trademark in 1999. This club however secured many interesting trademarks including Al Hilal Club Investment, Al Hilal Club Tourism, Al Hilal Café, Al Hilal Club E-Sports, Al Hilal Club Real Estate and even as a construction service under class 37 for Blue Residence by Al Hilal. H Al Hilal Club Entertainment and Al Hilal Club Academy. Perhaps the diversity of services and potential revenue streams by Al Hilal Al Saudi Club may not be the case for every football club but Al Hilal Saudi Club stand out in scoring modern day football club trademarks. E-Sports and sport academies, hospitality and entertainment have already proved successful brands for football clubs beyond the traditional classes of 41 for sports and 25 for apparel and other merchandise classes. Many international clubs including Manchester City, PSG, Juventus, AC Milan have either tied up directly in setting up academies or licensed their trademarks to franchisees. Not only football clubs, but this is an area where federations have also tapped in to as Spain’s La Liga has a La Liga Academy in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Malaysia, New York, Vermont, Dallas, Bogota. La Liga FC Futures, a tournament aimed at the youth academies of La Liga teams was held for the first time in Saudi Arabia in March of 2024. A football club’s brand reach no longer is limited to its geographical base and it activities are no longer restricted to matches and jerseys.  As such, as the business of football changes, the approach to trademarks protection changes requires rising up to secure the expanding scope of services and merchandising by football clubs and associations.

For further information,
please contact Omar Obeidat.

^{Published in}^{October 2024}