Neymar Protected His Legal Rights Successfully with the Malicious Registered Trademark Declared Invalid

Famous Brazilian soccer player Neymar has persuaded the EU General Court to judge the action of registering the trademark Neymar by Portuguese businessman Carlos Moreira as malicious.

Moreira registered the trademark as the 25th category of clothing, shoes and hats in 2012. One year later, The EUIPO approved the application with no dissent received during the publicity period. Neymar didn’t find out the fact until he wanted to register his own name as a trademark in the EU. In 2016, it was declared by the EUIPO that the trademark should be invalid with the requirement by Neymar until the appeal filed by Moreira in 2017.

On May 14, 2019, the EU General Court rejected the appeal by Moreira regarding the trademark application as malicious.

It was thought by the appeal board of the EUIPO that Moreira had known Neymar was a superstar in soccer with his talents globally recognized, whose decision was doubted by Moreira.

The Portuguese businessman also protested the assessment by the EUIPO, which said that Moreira just wanted to make profits from the notability of Neymar.

However, in the judgment held on May 14, the EU General Court judged that there were sufficient materials submitted by the EUIPO proving Neymar was already a globally well-known soccer player during the time Moreira put forward the trademark application in 2012.

According to the court, at that time, Neymar had won great attention of the top soccer clubs in Europe, which planned to recruit him before he transferred to FC Barcelona in 2013.

It was also pointed out by the court that, on the hearing, Moreira stated that he knew the existence of Neymar but didn’t know he was a superstar in soccer.

Finally, it was judged by the court that the trademark Iker Casillas supported the conclusion drawn by the EUIPO that Moreira had some knowledge about soccer when he registered the trademark Neymar.

Neymar was ranked as the most expensive soccer player when he transferred from FC Barcelona to PSG with the transfer fee of EUR 222 million (USD 248 million ) in 2017. Moreira was asked to cover the legal expenses.

May 30, 2019

Source: www.ipr.gov.cn

Photo from: 6199pi.com