Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is under threat of potential legal action for brand infringement after U.S. women's national team star Megan Rapinoe said the logo for Johnson's latest venture looks similar to a brand founded by her partner, Sue Bird.
Rapinoe hinted at legal action after Johnson's newly rebranded American football league 'XFL Football League' launched their new brand and, according to Rapinoe, having similar features to the brand of her company "Togethxr", a media company aimed at redressing injustices and challenging old-fashioned notions imposed on modern day women.
A statement from Togethxr said, "Togethxr and its co-founders have worked tremendously hard to build a platform that uplifts women in sports and culture. We were disheartened to see the announcement of the XFL's new branding and logo, which has striking similarities to our own. It's our mission to weave representation and equality into all that we do, which is why we've issued a legal notice to the XFL highlighting our concerns. We will continue to protect the important work we're doing."
Johnson and his business partner, Danny Garcia, explained to Sports Illustrated recently that they "hope to establish a league filled with opportunity for everyone in a time where the NFL has been under intense scrutiny concerning the lack of diversity among the league's owners, managers and head coaches."
But as Johnson and Garcia figure out the kinks of what they hope will be a positive new beginning – particularly in light of the many competing football leagues that have failed – they may have to come up with a different branding plan than the one they have now.
In South Africa, the general test for a trademark infringement is whether the marks are identical or confusingly similar, that is – whether they "look", "sound", or are "conceptually" the same. However, merely comparing the disputed marks is not sufficient as the goods and services also must be compared to see if they are identical or similar.
Rapinoe has clearly taken exception to the proposed branding of XFL and wishes to ensure that Togethxr's intellectual property (IP) rights remain preserved. It would be interesting to see on which IP rights Togethxr will rely upon in this regard and see how the matter plays out.
Hopefully one of the parties were "on the ball" enough to secure protection for their trademarks on their brands.
The costs related to adequate trademark protection are usually greatly outweighed by the costs of omitting to do so.
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