Top soccer club loses branding appeal.

 

Italian football team AC Milan was issued with a ‘red card’ this month when a European Union tribunal rejected its appeal against an earlier ruling that had blocked it from registering its logo in Germany for use on stationery products. 

 

According to a report in OPI, the reason was that local wholesaler InterES already holds a trademark on the name Milan for one of its own brand ranges.

 

The court ruled that the registration of AC Milan’s logo would cause confusion for German consumers. The club has two months to appeal the decision.