Manchester United Football Club (MUFC) has settled a trademark dispute with SEGA, the producer and publisher of the popular ‘Football Manager’ computer game, over the use of the club’s name and symbol in the game.
Trademark
The club crest and the word mark “MANCHESTER UNITED” are both EU-registered trademarks owned by MUFC. The owners of a registered trademark have exclusive use of the mark and are protected from non-licensed users infringing on it. This protection includes “computer software” and “pre-recorded games on… software.”
One of the functions of trademarks is to serve as a “guarantee of origin.” To prove that SEGA infringed on MUFC’s trademark, it must show that the ordinary customer would believe that MUFC was either responsible for the game or had licensed the use of its trademarks inside the game.
Since 1992, the name “Manchester United” has been used in Football Manager (and its predecessor “Championship Manager”). Football Manager does not require licensing, unlike other football games such as FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer. In 2020, about 30 years after the original edition of the game was published, MUFC alleged that its trademark was being violated.
Infringement for Failure to Use Proper Crest
SEGA argued that the club’s name was “a legitimate reference to the Manchester United football team in a football context” and that it has been used without objection in Football Manager since 1992. SEGA further claimed that it had been sending copies of Football Manager to MUFC executives and players for years and that current manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had discussed openly how he began playing Football Manager as a player at the club.
The Manchester United Football Club alleged that SEGA infringed on its trademark by not including the official Manchester United crest in the game. Official club crests are not used in Football Manager. Rather, it uses generic badges that depict the color of a team’s kit (for example, a red and white badge appears beside Manchester United).
MUFC argued that this deprived them of their right to license the club’s crest. “Consumers expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester United… and this failure to do so amounts to wrongful use,” MUFC’s lawyers claimed.
The Manchester United simplified logo is one of 14 generic logo templates, according to SEGA, and clearly shows that the claimant does not license the use of the Manchester United mark.
Settlement of the Trademark Dispute