Swedish professional football coach and former player, Henrik Larsson, has emerged victorious in a trade mark dispute with Scottish businessman James Dear.
The trade mark in dispute depicts a green and white badge with a silhouette of Larsson on the badge and his name at the top of it.
Larsson’s representatives objected to Dear’s application on the grounds Dear is seeking to exploit the sportsman’s reputation in order to sell goods. The UK Intellectual Property Office has subsequently banned Dear from using Larsson’s name in sports-related gear. The Office stated that the use of the name would “misrepresent the goods as being connected with the applicant”. It has been reported Dear is preparing to appeal the decision.
A further action to determine whether the application was filed in bad faith is still to be decided, however the IPO examiner did comment in the first ruling that, “[given] Mr. Dear’s explanations I do not think his subjective intention was to cause deception.” The Arbroath-based businessman has applied for trade marks in the past relating to other retired footballers including Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho.
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