Daily Times

Manchester United are suing the makers of the Football Manager series for allegedly infringing their trademark by using the club’s name “extensively throughout the game”. The English Premier League side have taken legal action at the High Court against Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive (SI) – the publisher and developer of the popular football management simulation.

The club also argue Sega and SI have infringed their trademark over their logo by not using the official Manchester United crest in the game, instead “replacing the club crest with a simplified red and white striped logo”. Man United claim this “deprives the registered proprietor of its right to have the club crest licensed”.

Sega and SI say the use of the club’s name is “a legitimate reference to the Manchester United football team in a football context” and has been used in Football Manager and its predecessor, Championship Manager, since 1992 “without complaint by the claimant”. The companies have accused the club of trying to “prevent legitimate competition in the video games field by preventing parties not licensed by the claimant from using the name of the Manchester United football team within such games”.

At a preliminary remote hearing on Friday, Manchester United’s barrister Simon Malynicz QC said “the name ‘Manchester United’ is one of the world’s most valuable and recognised brands”.

He said the money clubs make from licensing their names and logos is “very significant” and “the products and services that are licensed by the claimant benefit from an association with the club’s winning culture and its brand values”. Mr Malynicz argued, in relation to the alleged infringement of the trademark on Man United’s logo, that “consumers expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester United and this failure to do so amounts to wrongful use”. He accepted this argument is “somewhat novel, and certainly in the context of video games, but it is certainly arguable”.

The barrister asked Mr Justice Morgan to allow the club to amend their claim against Sega and SI to include allegations involving “the practice of supplying ‘patches’ or ‘mods’, essentially downloadable files containing replica trademarks, which consumers then incorporate into the game”.

Mr Malynicz argued Sega and SI “encouraged” the use of patches supplied by third parties “by promoting the patch providers in various ways and, of course, they directly benefited from it by avoiding the need to take any licence and enjoying increased sales of their game”. Roger Wyand QC, representing the defendants, opposed the club’s application to amend their claim. In their written defence to Man United’s claim, Sega and SI said: “The claimant has acquiesced in the use by the defendants of the name of the Manchester United football team in the Football Manager game and cannot now complain of such use.”