The gadgets sold with the logo of Poland-Ukraine Bid are illegal. The Internet domain names including references to EURO 2012 that are registered on mass scale may prove to be worthless.
In their bid Poland and Ukraine committed themselves to support UEFA in enforcement of its industrial property rights covering the rights to the logo of Poland and Ukraine bid and logo of the future Championships. Authorities of both countries are to help the organizers in combating the so-called ambush marketing, i.e. practices consisting in marketing of goods and services based on associations with the European Championships. UEFA pays particular attention to such practices and therefore e2012.org publishes the following statement of UEFA on that matter:
“Poland Ukraine 2012”, “Poland Ukraine candidate for UEFA Euro 2012”, “Euro 2012” are trademarks owned by UEFA.
Any use in whole or in part of graphic symbols, text being protected under the trademarks owned by UEFA, or an alteration thereof, constitutes unauthorized use of those trademarks, unless an express written license or consent is obtained from UEFA for the use of its trademarks.
The use of trade marks owned by UEFA requiring a prior consent from or conclusion of a license agreement with UEFA includes in particular:
– the use of UEFA trade marks as a part of a company name;
– marketing, manufacturing, selling, distributing and promotion of any items, especially such as clothing, toys, mugs, bearing any UEFA trade marks;
– the commercial and promotional use in web pages and in domain names;
– any use of trademarks owned by UEFA without obtaining a prior consent form or conclusion of a license agreement with UEFA will be subject of relevant legal actions instituted by the owner.
The statement makes it clear that one is not even allowed to use words „EURO 2012” on web sites, unless in a press release or unless a prior consent was obtained from UEFA.
Therefore any person infringing UEFA rights will be proportionally penalized – from a fine to imprisonment.
– Such remedial trials are usually very simple. Proving someone’s guilt is not a problem. For UEFA such practices are nothing new and therefore persons violating law may not feel unpunished. – such was a comment on the UEFA statement from Adriana Bronikowska of Wierzbowski Eversheds legal office.
