TM "DISPUTANTS" ARE JUST GOOD SPORTS

Friend of the IPKat Daniel Greenberg has tipped the Kat off about an on-off dispute between the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and its publishing partner Highbury Safika Media. SARU is the proprietor of the SA RUGBY trade mark in Class 16 (which includes printed matter). Highbury presently publishes a magazine for SARU, and there were reports yesterday that the two companies had fallen out during negotiations to extend the contract. The alleged dispute was said to have centred over Highbury’s entitlement to use the SA RUGBY trade mark in its SA Rugby magazine. However, both companies have denied that the rumours are true, and they insist that relations remain amicable.

The IPKat reckons that there’s room for someone to write a good article on the IP implications of sports club/team-focused magazines, including issues such as: (i) whether consumers expect such magazines to be “official”; (ii) descriptive use of team names; (iii) inadvertent inclusion of trade marks in pictures e.g. though pictures of players wearing sponsored shirts; (iv) personality rights of players; (v) rights in fixtures lists, results etc and (vi) use and licensing of trade marks in Class 16 by sporting teams.

More on the story here