Bloomberg Law
April 27, 2018, 3:24 PM UTC

Soccer Star Lionel Messi Scores Trademark Goal at EU Court

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, the record four-time world player of the year, won a European Union court challenge over the trademark rights to his own logo, defeating a Spanish cycling clothing maker who owns the name Massi.

The soccer “player’s fame counteracts the visual and phonetic similarities” with the other brand, the EU General Court, said in a decision in Luxembourg April 26. The EU judges said Messi should get the EU trademark for the logo, which consists of an emblem with an M, with the name Messi underneath.

[Image (src=https://db0ip7zd23b50.cloudfront.net/dims4/default/645553c/2147483647/resize/633x10000%3E/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbspot-prod.bna.com%2Forca%2Fapi%2Frendition%2Fjpg%2Forca99785.jpg%3Fdigest%3D052ab4c7c2a5977daec94059ad0ceaa0e68677874440264cae4f6ce271904de3)]

Lionel Messi

Photographer: Alex Caparros/Getty Images

The soccer player has ...

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