A European court has ruled that Lionel Messi, the world’s top earning footballer, can trademark his own name.<\/p>\n
The Barcelona and Argentina striker fought a seven-year fight to be able to use his name on sports goods.<\/p>\n
His original application was challenged by the Spanish cycling brand, Massi, which argued that the names were too similar and would cause confusion.<\/p>\n
But the EU’s General Court ruled that the footballer was too well known for confusion to arise.<\/p>\n
The ruling comes days after France Football magazine reported Mr Messi had overtaken Cristiano Ronaldo as the highest earner in football, with an income of \u20ac126m (\u00a3108m).<\/p>\n
Mr Ronaldo is making \u20ac94m, the magazine said.<\/p>\n
Mr Messi’s application to trademark his name was made to the European Union Office for Intellectual Property (EUIPO) in 2011.<\/p>\n
It ruled against the footballer, saying the names were similar, because their dominant elements, “consisting of the terms ‘Massi’ and ‘Messi’, are almost identical visually and phonetically”.<\/p>\n
EUIPO said that only some people would be aware the two were different.<\/p>\n
But the General Court, the EU’s second highest court, disagreed.<\/p>\n
It said on Thursday: “The football player’s fame counteracts the visual and phonetic similarities” with Massi.<\/p>\n
“Mr Messi is, in fact, a well-known public figure who can be seen on television and who is regularly discussed on television or on the radio,” the court said.<\/p>\n
Widely considered one of the world’s greatest soccer players, Mr Messi, 30, scored his 600th professional goal last month and is the all-time highest scorer for both Barcelona and Argentina’s national team.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"