17/02/2011
NEWS STORY
Seems like hardly a week passes by these days when there isn't a battle going on over the rights to a name or trademark. In the latest episode a European court has thrown out the Formula One Group's (FOG) claim to the exclusive rights to 'F1' as a trademark.
The General Court in Luxembourg was ruling on an appeal by Formula One Licensing, the commercial rights arm of FOG, against a decision by the trademark agency OHIM in 2007.
"Formula One Licensing cannot prevent the registration of a (European) Community trade mark containing the words 'F1 LIVE'," the General Court said in its ruling this morning.
"There is no likelihood of confusion between the mark applied for and Formula One Licensing's marks, given the low degree of similarity between the marks and the descriptive character that the public attributes to the abbreviation 'F1'," the court ruled.
Over the years, the Formula One Group and Bernie Ecclestone have fought many battles around the world in their attempts to protect what they feverishly believe is solely theirs. Famously, Ecclestone fought a battle on both sides of the Atlantic over the domain name F1.com - he lost.
FOG was seeking the exclusive rights to the terms 'F1' and a whole range of derivatives, as far as the General Court in Luxembourg is concerned, FOG has ended up with 'F All'.