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Author Topic: WORLD CUP - is this term copyrighted? - ZAZZLE statement **UPDATE ***  (Read 25622 times)

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« on: March 25, 2010, 17:48 »
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I had some stuff removed on Zazzle for using the term "World Cup" - obviously it was soccer related.

I see on their web site that the term "FIFA World Cup" is a trademark.

But on Wikipedia the term "World Cup" is defined as:
Quote
A World Cup  is a type of sporting competition.

Also what is with the term "Soccer World Cup" - who owns that?

Maybe someone of you has more info about this.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2010, 14:35 by click_click »


« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2010, 17:55 »
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I guess they registered copyright all over the place:

http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/world-cup-2010-for-official-sponsors-only.html

Quote
...Apparently the phrase World Cup 2010″ is a registered trademark and can only be used by you guessed it official sponsors. FIFA are claiming this as a victory against ambush marketers. ...

« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2010, 18:02 »
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it can get pretty silly - some years ago the US Olympic committee sued businesses on the Olympic National park borders for using Olympic in their business names - not sure if they also went after our state capital, Olympia

s

« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2010, 18:05 »
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it can get pretty silly - some years ago the US Olympic committee sued businesses on the Olympic National park borders for using Olympic in their business names - not sure if they also went after our state capital, Olympia

s

I hope they lost :-)

« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2010, 18:12 »
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I uploaded soccer themes and used the term Soccer World Cup or just World Cup.

How else can I refer to this event?

"International championship that takes place every four years"

I respect their copyright but it's just a bit far I think.

« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2010, 18:16 »
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Funny enough the term "Soccer World Cup" is in the disambiguation system of iStock. There are also tons of images on there using the term in the image description and title.

Wonder how that pans out.

« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2010, 18:42 »
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Dont know about "world cup" , but I can tell u  that nobody who likes football in Europe or in almost all countries where football is national sport number 1
, never uses term soccer , and never will , FIFA and UEFA dont use that term also.


I guess they cannot copyright "world cup" cause the term is used in other sports world championships finals , If I had to bet the term they own is "FIFA world cup" , but Im not 100% positive about that

« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2010, 19:25 »
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Dont know about "world cup" , but I can tell u  that nobody who likes football in Europe or in almost all countries where football is national sport number 1
, never uses term soccer , and never will , FIFA and UEFA dont use that term also.


I guess they cannot copyright "world cup" cause the term is used in other sports world championships finals , If I had to bet the term they own is "FIFA world cup" , but Im not 100% positive about that

I had products removed from Zazzle because FIFA complained about my "World Cup" term.

"FIFA World Cup" is trademarked, it says it on their web site.

« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2010, 19:45 »
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Did you have the word FIFA?

« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2010, 19:51 »
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Did you have the word FIFA?

Absolutely not! I was already doing research before designing this stuff so I thought I was somewhat sure that it's ok.

« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2010, 20:04 »
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After thinking for a while , i think they may be right , you had photos that are obviously connected with football (or soccer if u prefer) and used a "world cup term" , most probably
u also used keyword "football".  Apparently  there is just one football world cup and its theirs , so even if you didn't used full term , everything else obviously show where u are pointing.

For example , if you had a photo of a gold cup trophy or whatever that can is called ( not the real one cause that statue is famous and copyrighted) , and used a "world cup" term but not football or some other sport keyword it would be ok cause there are many world cups and nobody can say you are digging in his yard.

Just my way of thinking

« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2010, 20:28 »
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Although "FIFA World Cup" can only be used by FIFA's authorized companies, I think their claim is ridiculous, but Zazzle probably doesn't want to mess with this.  FIFA knows that to each "official merchandise", there will be hundreds of non-official ones.  Soon our stores will be flooded with t-shirts, caps, flags, funny hats, and they will have things ike "South Africa 2010" written on them, and they will not be able to control this.

I am also starting to plan my Zazzle World Cup stuff.  Did you ask Zazzle about this?

« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2010, 20:56 »
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Last month I visited the trophy exhibition and I've just checked the photo souvenir they gave me (we could barely see the cup, we were directed to pose for the photo and then leave the way to the next in line).  It has "Get you FIFA World Cup" and "The FIFA World Cup Trophy is a copyright and trademark of FIFA".  I don't  think they could really claim rights over a general expression like "World Cup 2010", but it seems they have:
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/fifa%E2%84%A2-gets-its-2010%E2%84%A2-world-cup%E2%84%A2-trademark-on.html
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/147/16117.html
Now, these links are from 2007, and the second says the objection period was still open.  Has this been granted?

Ok, let's make a list of future sports events and possible cities/contries and trademark them.   ::)

« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2010, 21:03 »
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There is more on the (il)legal claim of generic terms:
http://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/detail.aspx?g=f5202ebb-02a1-4eb3-9e09-0d423265db0b
Quote
None of the marks on the list are unique to FIFA and FIFA already has registration of most of its trademarks


And this is FIFA's factsheet about this:
http://www.fifa.com/mm/53/42/06/2010_fifa_public_guidelines_en_260908.pdf

I still wonder if they were granted TM for all those claimed terms.

« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2010, 22:09 »
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I really have no problem complying to their rights. I never tried to copy anything. I had my own designs and "only" used the words. If the words are trademarked or whatever, I will stop with my stuff.

Once you get the rights to something, you're entitled to it - that's how it works.

I'm just not so sure if the agencies are already aware of this, because iStock, Shutterstock , Fotolia, Dreamstime and the rest will be having a lot of trouble coming their way then using this term...

« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2010, 23:08 »
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they just had the hockey world cup Australia won. there is world cup of heaps of different sports, rugby union,rugby league, hockey, netball etc.

I don't see how they can copyright "world cup" on its own.

« Reply #16 on: March 27, 2010, 21:02 »
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Let me get back to you on this one, you cant use "World Cup 2010", that's 120% certain.

I work in the design department of one of the worlds biggest bookmakers, and I remember the guys working on the world cup promotions had a major road bump in regards to the whole copyright thing a couple of months ago.

I'll check on Monday, I know they had their legal dudes double check everything was OK before progressing. How exactly they progressed im not 100% sure of(since i didn't work on it). If memory serves me right, "world cup" on its own was acceptable. But again, let me double check that on Monday.

Anyway, in the case of key-wording. I cant see the big issue. Just use terms as football, stadium, crowd etc etc.  Unless somebody is looking for a actual picture of the cup (as in, the trophy) it wont really matter?


« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2010, 08:31 »
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...
Anyway, in the case of key-wording. I cant see the big issue. Just use terms as football, stadium, crowd etc etc.  Unless somebody is looking for a actual picture of the cup (as in, the trophy) it wont really matter?

Thanks for your response.

As for the keywords I'm only concerned using the terms "World Cup" or "World Cup 2010". This really not easy to convey an image that doesn't abuse any copyrights or trademarks but relates directly to this year's event. Even if people just use the keywords "world cup" and "2010" separately I wonder if FIFA is still ok with that.

« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2010, 19:43 »
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Although those links don't say, I'm sure FIFA also has rights over the translation of those terms in other languages, so "frica do Sul 2010" and "Copa do Mundo 2010" are also forbidden?

« Reply #19 on: March 30, 2010, 15:47 »
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apparently, the guys out at work who are working on world cup have been told by the legal dudes to to avoid using the words "world cup" all together. bless them :D  

« Reply #20 on: March 30, 2010, 17:27 »
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apparently, the guys out at work who are working on world cup have been told by the legal dudes to to avoid using the words "world cup" all together. bless them :D  

I thought so. I'm just going to avoid that from now on. Thanks for getting back here.

Microbius

« Reply #21 on: March 31, 2010, 06:23 »
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Some big companies have their own zazzle stores so I think maybe they have agreement prohibiting other members from using keywords relating to their products. E.g. I think you can't use some words relating to superheroes because of the DC account even if the illustration doesn't directly relate to a DC character (?)

« Reply #22 on: April 01, 2010, 11:04 »
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I just received an answer from iStockphoto about the term "World Cup".

This is a quote from iStock:

Quote
... There is no copyright of the term "world cup" ...

... Just showing the term "world cup" is ok, even with a soccer ball, but you should try not to reference FIFA directly. ...

Now, I'm stumped.

RT


« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2010, 11:47 »
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Let me get back to you on this one, you cant use "World Cup 2010", that's 120% certain.

Where did you get this information, because it is 120% incorrect.  Having read your two posts I think you'll find that you're getting confused with the situation in which your bookmakers are using the term for, and I'm guessing they've stumbled on legal ground because they are using it in marketing/promotional material directly connected with the FIFA world cup 2010, but I can assure you to use the words "world cup" or "world cup 2010" as keywords for a stock photo is no problem whatsoever even if you also have the word "football" as well. Trademarks are just that a trademark and have nothing to do with keywords.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2010, 15:15 by RT »

« Reply #24 on: April 01, 2010, 12:31 »
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Let me get back to you on this one, you cant use "World Cup 2010", that's 120% certain.
... but I can assure you to use the words "world cup" or "world cup 2010" as keywords for a stock photo is no problem whatsoever even if you also have the word "football" as well.

I'm more interested in using the term "World Cup" in the actual design. "World Cup 2010" is supposedly a bit too hot as it's quite specific (I'd assume).

However, my designs were removed from Zazzle because of the term "World Cup" incorporated into the design. No mentioning of FIFA anywhere.
I wonder how the copyright holder explained that to Zazzle...?


 

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