ERLING HAALAND has sensationally been BLOCKED from trademarking his own name.
The Manchester City star has helped fire the club to within touching distance of a historic Treble with 52 goals in 51 games.
And such is the frequency of his celebration and name he has tried to trademark them.
As reported by Norwegian outlet VG, Haaland submitted three applications to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office through law firm Schjødt.
The first was a trademark on his signature. The second to trademark his lotus celebration. And the third to trademark “Erling Haaland”.
The first two of these applications were successful and approved without issue according to Knut Andreas Bostad, the Head of Section in the Design and Trademark Department in the NIPO.
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Consequently, the 22-year-old now has exclusive rights to them in Norway and can now apply for an international trademark.
However, the use of his name was rejected due to a previous application submitted last year, owned by a 29-year-old man from Oslo.
Bostad told VG: “We have a Haaland application that came in to us on September 8, 2022.
“They have applied to be able to use it on clothing, selling footwear and a number of other things, as part of the things Erling Haaland has subsequently applied for.
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“It is therefore a discouragement for us. Because we already have a registration inside.”
The former Borussia Dortmund ace now has a three-month deadline to appeal the decision.
If he still wishes to trademark his name going forward, he has three options.
Firstly, he can use the name without permission and take legal action against the current owner.
Secondly, he can pay for consent to use the name.
His final option would be to buy the name from the original owner.
Asked whether celebs trademarking their name was a common occurrence, Bostad said: “It happens especially for celebrities who show up, then some people think, ‘Wow, I’m going to record this here’.”
Due to a Norwegian “duty” law on trademarks, if it is not used (create products etc) within five years then the owner loses the rights.
Haaland will likely be in action in the first-ever FA Cup final Manchester derby later today.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
