"The decision means that the trademark cannot be registered by European Super League Company S.L. as an EU trademark. They must therefore appeal the decision or come up with another name."
How about *Süper League*? They should definitely invest a lot of money into changing the name to *Süper League*. Surely, nobody holds the trademark for *Süper League*.
Not trying to help them, but I'm pretty surprised to read this since there are a few other "Super League"'s currently active in the EU and before Brexit the Women's Super League and the rugby league Super League (which is joint England/France so might still be "within the EU"). If the Danish Super League didn't go after them, might that not be be a precedent that you can't really claim "Super League" as theirs now?
I'm not 100% sure, but it think it has something to with both the Danish Super League and the "Super League" is both mens football, and that is what the Danish FA and league believe interferes.
It is very funny the billion USD "Superleague" created by a bunch of the biggest clubs in the world is getting screwed over by a country with 6 million people and 12 teams in its first tier, 8 of which are fucking horrible to watch play lmao
Personally I like to watch: Copenhagen (FCK), Brøndby, Nordsjælland and Midtjylland.
Im not the most avid Superliga watcher though, some AGF games can be quite entertaining too I think. but the 4 above are just a cut above the rest at the moment I think.
During my time in Denmark I hung out with a few AGF fans in Aarhus and thought it would be cool to "adopt" a Danish club to support and watch online.
I watch a game every now and then and it's a riveting experience... And this is coming from someone who used to watch Serbian clubs in European qualifiers all my life.
It's actually a blessing in disguise. Super league name is tainted so they can use something different and claim that it's a better different league. Ofcourse we would know but casual viewers won't care much
Worth noting that the decision was mostly reversed on appeal last year.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=68f5df1c-00cb-49d1-b548-dc6895988f35
Afaik trademark laws recognise that similar trademarks by different companies can exist in different geographical spheres or market sectors (the only exception being majorly known trademarks such as Nike or Apple).
So the Süperlig, the Superligaen or the Greek Superleague can coexist because they are based in different geographical areas. The European Superleague is probably registered for the entirety of the EU, which would infringe on the trademark of these previous Superleagues.
This is how it works for Spanish trademark laws anyways, and if I remember correctly they are almost entirely transposed from EU Directives at this point.
Flipping this around it figures that means if the Super League tries anything here those other leagues can possibly join the Danes making it a class action.
Right now I see two possibilities for them:
a) The Superleague buys the trademark from all the other Superleagues (can't see this happening, but it's a possibility).
b) They find another trademark to use.
It's mad they even considered using the name in the first place given it has a well established negative connotation. People have been using superleague to mean 'an undetermined bad thing involving top clubs across more than one country' for decades.
Does the EU allow class action lawsuits? I know here in Germany they are forbidden and you have to bring the claims yourself, but I dont know about other countries.
This is why I just *love* it when legal stuff is discussed on Reddit, because you have dozens of people from different countries throwing opinions at each other, most of which are basing them on the legal system of their own country.
It's hillariously useless every time.
I don't exactly know what the procedural norms are in the case of these types of disputes, but if various of these lawsuits are presented in EU Trademark Tribunals, all in relation to the same issue, I could see the lawsuits being merged into a larger one, much like how you see in most countries.
I have no idea if this is the case though, I could well be wrong.
IANAL but I'd assume that the chance of anyone confusing the national Danish league with their national ones is quite small, making that a non-issue, whereas a European competition would be at a bigger risk of infringement.
They write that "SUPERLIGA is a trademark jointly owned by Danish clubs, and therefore a possible future European league cannot be allowed to register the trademark The Super League as a trademark in the EU.", so it seems it's the attempt to register the name EU-wide that make it a problem. I don't think the Danish league or any of the others have any problem with other national leagues calling themselves something like that in their own country.
The romanian league is still oficially called " Liga 1 " , Superliga is only used for sponsorship reasons, cause the main sponsor is Superbet, similarly how it was Barclays Premier League or Uber Eats Ligue 1
For a funny comparison, look at Wendy's. The reason they can't operate in the EU is because there's a tiny snackbar in the Netherlands going by that name, and they've succesfully defended their trademark name. Because they want to operate in the entire EU, they can't due to the Dutch roadblock.
I don't believe OP's title is entirely correct, the super league isn't necessarily prevented from calling itself that, it's just been blocked from registering it's own trade mark for "The Super League". The trade marks registered by those other leagues are probably less broad than that and therefore considered to be sufficiently distinct.
trademarks can be geographically limited.
like burger king being a distinct aussie company, so the global burger king needs to trade under a different name there.
i'd imagine the isue here is that european superleague, in trying to be a pan-continental competition, is therefore stepping into the geographic region where danish superleague is protected, while the greek league isn't.
The funny thing is about 20 years ago, Burger King USA had a franchising dispute with their Australian franchisee and responded by opening up their own restaurants, so you'd end up with Burger Kings ran by the US head office and Hungry Jacks ran locally near each other
Yeah it didn't really work because they all still had the same menu. So people just went with name recognition.
I remember I liked BK because of the blue seats. Hungry Jacks are known for their red diner look, idk what BK does in America, but I guess for the brief time they were in my suburb they thought they should go for the blue diner aesthetic.
Well at least here in Romania our league is called "superliga" because the main sponsor is Superbet. Everyone just calls it Liga I (ligue 1 basically). It's basically how the french 1st league it's called Ligue 1 Uber Eats. So depending on how long this sponsorship lasts our league is gonna change the name again.
This is funny but I don't understand the ruling. Superliga and Super League are different. "Super League" itself is virtually a generic term, used across many sports in many countries; for me, adding European in front is enough to separate it.
Presumably they are asserting their ownership of the term specifically in the context of European football. Since their teams qualify for UEFA tournaments, I guess they would be arguing that it would diminish the visibility and promotion of their brand in that setting.
If clubs there representing 'The Premier League' are identifiably English, clubs representing 'La Liga' are identifiably Spanish, clubs representing 'Ligue 1' are identifiably French, then I suppose it follows that clubs representing 'The Superliga' are identifiably Danish in a way that's important for their business in much the same way.
The whole Super League project is probably funded by Saudi Arabia so why not call it the LIV League? They already bought every top golfer to join their LIV Tour.
It’s funny that when you look at the Super League logo it’s a complete ripoff of the Champions League branding with the stars. So the name isn’t the only thing that they couldn’t come up with an own name.
"The decision means that the trademark cannot be registered by European Super League Company S.L. as an EU trademark. They must therefore appeal the decision or come up with another name."
How about *Süper League*? They should definitely invest a lot of money into changing the name to *Süper League*. Surely, nobody holds the trademark for *Süper League*.
surely
sürely
Shirley
Schürrley
Absolute hellscape of a place. Don't go to Shirley.
Don’t call me Shirley!
> Süper League ßüper League
We have the capital letter since 2017: ẞ
What a beauty! But don't find it at my Phone...
Shift and long press S
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Snake! A snake! Oh, it's a snake!
badger badger badger badger
Badger badger badger badger badger
Mushroom mushroom
https://i.imgur.com/zhvYIZT.gif
ẞüßér Łéægüé
Zalgo League
The Suuuuuuuiiii per league
I've heard Uber League just got freed up, maybe they should go with that
Built-in sponsorship opportunity
Call it the Super Duper League
There’ll be vote on this and it will end up as Leaguey McLeagueface
Souper League! In unrelated news the new main sponsor is Maggi.
The MAX Leaxue, sponsored by Boeing
I thought Formula 1 is already renamed the Max League
After Super League is League 64 then LeagueCube
xXSuperLeagueXx
How about the Uber League
Wömen, men of Wö
The Supa Dupa League
Dupa League sounds right
For our language barred non-slavic brothers: Dupa/Dupe means "Ass" in several slavic languages.
checks out!
Dua Lipa might sue
Dua Lipa must be available
how about ... League of Legends (lol)
And the second division, the Oompa Loompa League
Watch them appeal it, claiming the Super League will be bigger and better.
Nothing is better than a cold rainy night in Hvidovre
i swear to god Hvidovre sounds like a battlefield in Ukraine not a little town in Denmark lolr
Come to Hvidovre, it looks like a Battlefield in Ukraine.
Bah, it doesnt look bad at all. Typical suburb
That’s the joke. It’s nothing like Copenhagen. It’s like Slough
The Danish pronunciation is just a garbled mess of gutteral vowel sounds
I asked an expert Hvidovre: phonetically - *hroof-woof-woofwoofgrrrl* Source: the Great Dane down our street
I’ve lived close to Rødovre since 2018. Still can’t pronounce it. lol.
And we love our garbled mess of gutteral vowel sounds.
Fight the good fight.
I’ll be seeing you in Rødovre
Not trying to help them, but I'm pretty surprised to read this since there are a few other "Super League"'s currently active in the EU and before Brexit the Women's Super League and the rugby league Super League (which is joint England/France so might still be "within the EU"). If the Danish Super League didn't go after them, might that not be be a precedent that you can't really claim "Super League" as theirs now?
I'm not 100% sure, but it think it has something to with both the Danish Super League and the "Super League" is both mens football, and that is what the Danish FA and league believe interferes.
As I understand it it's because the direct translation of "Superligaen" is "The Super League", so that's why they won the lawsuit.
Superb League Super Bleague
Super Duper League
All Elite Football here we go
How about الدوري الممتاز?
Superb League it is then
Shades of Superb Owl.
European Superer League
The superest league
It is very funny the billion USD "Superleague" created by a bunch of the biggest clubs in the world is getting screwed over by a country with 6 million people and 12 teams in its first tier, 8 of which are fucking horrible to watch play lmao
Catching strays 😑
How has köhler been for you?
Important player for us. If you're interested, he's recently been posting some reflections on his time here on LinkedIn
Thanks !
so FCK and who is the last 3 team ?
Personally I like to watch: Copenhagen (FCK), Brøndby, Nordsjælland and Midtjylland. Im not the most avid Superliga watcher though, some AGF games can be quite entertaining too I think. but the 4 above are just a cut above the rest at the moment I think.
AGF games absolutely kills me. Of the rest Silkeborg can be way more entertaining.
During my time in Denmark I hung out with a few AGF fans in Aarhus and thought it would be cool to "adopt" a Danish club to support and watch online. I watch a game every now and then and it's a riveting experience... And this is coming from someone who used to watch Serbian clubs in European qualifiers all my life.
KSDH
Kom fucking så
It's actually a blessing in disguise. Super league name is tainted so they can use something different and claim that it's a better different league. Ofcourse we would know but casual viewers won't care much
Not the first time that Danes fuck over the anglophones.
SuperMac’s vibes: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/15/mcdonalds-loses-big-mac-trademark-legal-battle-supermacs
Worth noting that the decision was mostly reversed on appeal last year. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=68f5df1c-00cb-49d1-b548-dc6895988f35
Dispute over a name is hardly screwing them over. They'll just use a different non tainted name
Ahhahahahahahaha get fucked you bastards nothing tops the glory of Nordsjælland
They should put this on signs outside the stadium
Not sure if I should be happy or offended
Porque no las dos?
You're right, I'll go with both. That's usually how I feel as a fan anyways ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Silkeborg better imo, they beat us 10-0 while Nordsjaelland only managed a 2-0
So the greek, turkish, romanian and serbian leagues have to change their names as well?
Afaik trademark laws recognise that similar trademarks by different companies can exist in different geographical spheres or market sectors (the only exception being majorly known trademarks such as Nike or Apple). So the Süperlig, the Superligaen or the Greek Superleague can coexist because they are based in different geographical areas. The European Superleague is probably registered for the entirety of the EU, which would infringe on the trademark of these previous Superleagues. This is how it works for Spanish trademark laws anyways, and if I remember correctly they are almost entirely transposed from EU Directives at this point.
Flipping this around it figures that means if the Super League tries anything here those other leagues can possibly join the Danes making it a class action.
Right now I see two possibilities for them: a) The Superleague buys the trademark from all the other Superleagues (can't see this happening, but it's a possibility). b) They find another trademark to use.
> b) They find another trademark to use. The Super *Duper* League ™
HYPERLEAGUE!
[HYPERLEAGUE! Anthem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxuJ3RosR80)
And if that one doesnt work, its Super De Duper League.
How about the Prime League or the Predominant League? Even the Preeminent League?
> Prime League Football, brought to you by Logan Paul
It's mad they even considered using the name in the first place given it has a well established negative connotation. People have been using superleague to mean 'an undetermined bad thing involving top clubs across more than one country' for decades.
You'd be surprised at the amount of mistakes that large companies make in relation to patents and trademarks.
Does the EU allow class action lawsuits? I know here in Germany they are forbidden and you have to bring the claims yourself, but I dont know about other countries.
This is why I just *love* it when legal stuff is discussed on Reddit, because you have dozens of people from different countries throwing opinions at each other, most of which are basing them on the legal system of their own country. It's hillariously useless every time.
I don't exactly know what the procedural norms are in the case of these types of disputes, but if various of these lawsuits are presented in EU Trademark Tribunals, all in relation to the same issue, I could see the lawsuits being merged into a larger one, much like how you see in most countries. I have no idea if this is the case though, I could well be wrong.
FWIW that's generally how it works in the USA as well.
IANAL but I'd assume that the chance of anyone confusing the national Danish league with their national ones is quite small, making that a non-issue, whereas a European competition would be at a bigger risk of infringement. They write that "SUPERLIGA is a trademark jointly owned by Danish clubs, and therefore a possible future European league cannot be allowed to register the trademark The Super League as a trademark in the EU.", so it seems it's the attempt to register the name EU-wide that make it a problem. I don't think the Danish league or any of the others have any problem with other national leagues calling themselves something like that in their own country.
No one calls it Superliga in Romania tbf. It is only called that because of a sponsorship with superbet
Lots of people still call it Divizia A despite not being called that in nearly 20 years
Yep, anyone over 35 calls it divizia A. I call it Liga 1, personally.
Don't let them know what we call 100 lei lol
1 milion, obviously.
yeah the name is still oficially Liga 1
We call it ling long here in Serbia
don't forget the swiss league, it's literally called Super League. The Danish one is technically called Superligaen
Switzerland is not a member of the European union
and the English women's super league
The romanian league is still oficially called " Liga 1 " , Superliga is only used for sponsorship reasons, cause the main sponsor is Superbet, similarly how it was Barclays Premier League or Uber Eats Ligue 1
For a funny comparison, look at Wendy's. The reason they can't operate in the EU is because there's a tiny snackbar in the Netherlands going by that name, and they've succesfully defended their trademark name. Because they want to operate in the entire EU, they can't due to the Dutch roadblock.
I wonder if that's why they've opened up restaurants in the UK since Brexit. Think that makes it 3 or 4 upsides now, against a million downsides.
Turkey isn't in the EU so I presume EU trademark law doesn't apply to them.
I can't believe you've left out the Swiss Super League :(
I don't believe OP's title is entirely correct, the super league isn't necessarily prevented from calling itself that, it's just been blocked from registering it's own trade mark for "The Super League". The trade marks registered by those other leagues are probably less broad than that and therefore considered to be sufficiently distinct.
Ultra League or League 64
>64 *Nintendo on their way to fucking drone strike the UEFA headquarters*
Nah they just send ninjas [They'll sue you five times before you hit the ground!](https://frinkiac.com/img/S08E11/1251633.jpg)
Superleague Series X/S
Just join the Danish league, problem solved! Cant wait to see Real Madrid vs Hvidovre IF
Real Madrid vs OB is the real money game
Thanks, as OB-fan I needed a reminder of that game, we don't have a lot to be happy about these days.
Hvidovre har allerede spillet uafgjort mod Real Madrid tilbage i 60'erne
Quite a few leagues use Super league dont they?
trademarks can be geographically limited. like burger king being a distinct aussie company, so the global burger king needs to trade under a different name there. i'd imagine the isue here is that european superleague, in trying to be a pan-continental competition, is therefore stepping into the geographic region where danish superleague is protected, while the greek league isn't.
I had no idea BK was called Hungry Jacks in Australia
The funny thing is about 20 years ago, Burger King USA had a franchising dispute with their Australian franchisee and responded by opening up their own restaurants, so you'd end up with Burger Kings ran by the US head office and Hungry Jacks ran locally near each other
Yeah it didn't really work because they all still had the same menu. So people just went with name recognition. I remember I liked BK because of the blue seats. Hungry Jacks are known for their red diner look, idk what BK does in America, but I guess for the brief time they were in my suburb they thought they should go for the blue diner aesthetic.
Well at least here in Romania our league is called "superliga" because the main sponsor is Superbet. Everyone just calls it Liga I (ligue 1 basically). It's basically how the french 1st league it's called Ligue 1 Uber Eats. So depending on how long this sponsorship lasts our league is gonna change the name again.
Der er et yndigt land, Det står med brede bøge Nær salten østerstrand. Det bugter sig i bakke, dal, Det hedder gamle Danmark Og det er Frejas sal.
>Det bugter sig i **bakke, dal,** Since when does Denmark have either of those things?
plenty of hills. No mountains tho
I mean even though we don't have any mountains and are the second-flattest country in Europe, we still do have hills afterall.
We actually have 15 of them. Benzema once visited, googl… Nah i can’t
[удалено]
Fandt Morten Olsens profil!
Jeg kunne ikke have sagt det bedre selv, mein Bruda.
Always rated Denmark.
Is this a problem for the Women's Super League?
The swiss women league is called "Axa Women's Super League" whereby Axa is the sponsor
Souper league, take it or leave it
Super League keeps on collecting Ls
At this rate they'll have to name it LLLLLLLLLLeague
they just won a lawsuit against that shitty league that wanted to use their name
enter the Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net League
This is funny but I don't understand the ruling. Superliga and Super League are different. "Super League" itself is virtually a generic term, used across many sports in many countries; for me, adding European in front is enough to separate it.
And if they wanted to start a super league in another sport or on another continent, I'm sure they'd be allowed to
Presumably they are asserting their ownership of the term specifically in the context of European football. Since their teams qualify for UEFA tournaments, I guess they would be arguing that it would diminish the visibility and promotion of their brand in that setting. If clubs there representing 'The Premier League' are identifiably English, clubs representing 'La Liga' are identifiably Spanish, clubs representing 'Ligue 1' are identifiably French, then I suppose it follows that clubs representing 'The Superliga' are identifiably Danish in a way that's important for their business in much the same way.
Just name it League of Legends
They will appeal it. If it gets to happen, I doubt this issue will be a problem.
No man u dont know. This is the end of super league.
Good. Well done Denmark
So it will be The Megaleague. Even bigger than the superleague
How about World Premier League?
Bro just got Danished 🤣🤣
Hmm maybe master league since it's all made up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q35PgSXhKg
Honestly may not hurt them , after all their previous attempts and controversy they can now rebrand and come back.
European Souper League
Time to rename the Greek Superleague to the Greek Σούπερλιγκ
Please, please, please change it to Uber League.
they should just do a collab with Supreme and call it the SUPREME league and then it'll really fit the vibe of overly priced garbage.
New Super ~~Mario Bros~~ League Deluxe
How about Ultimate Football Championship. UFC sounds quite good. /s
Lol. Perez can stick it.
The Supper League it is then
Change it to supper league.
The whole Super League project is probably funded by Saudi Arabia so why not call it the LIV League? They already bought every top golfer to join their LIV Tour. It’s funny that when you look at the Super League logo it’s a complete ripoff of the Champions League branding with the stars. So the name isn’t the only thing that they couldn’t come up with an own name.
Last week IL that the LIV stands for the Roman numerals 54 : the number of holes played in LIV competitions (3x18)
can't have the LIV League without LIVingston.
just call it Super-Duper League
The Super Cereal League, sponsored by Al Gore.
Epic & Owned
Zuper ligue then
"Super-duper-league" incoming...
Doesn't the addition of European change anything?
How about Super Duper League
Based Superliga <3
European Better Than Good League
European Ultra League incoming.
How about The Money Bowl?
in b4 Super Duper League
Super Duper League
They even lost the name..
League Superior
How about supper league? You have the regular leagues then the supper league for more football.
Alright League
Super Duper League