FIFA Hails Legal Victory for the European Trademark Office

FIFA announced last month that the European Trademark Office, OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market), has “confirmed” its rights in its 2006 FIFA World Cup™ trademarks.   The ruling means that only FIFA’s commercial partners may use FIFA’s event marks including "WM 2006", "World Cup 2006", "World Cup Germany", "Germany 2006" and "World Cup 2006 Germany" for any commercial purposes in Europe, including host country Germany.   In the OHIM case, the confectionery