Chennai FC, a football club in the city, has sent a legal notice to the owners of an Indian Super League (ISL) team going by the name ‘Chennaiyin FC’, to desist from using its trademark name.
The notice sent on behalf of the Chennai Football Club (Chennai FC), a newly-promoted team in the Chennai Football League senior division, by its legal advisor Arun C. Mohan, states that “our client to protect its brand name and ever rising reputation has also filed trademark applications to protect its well-known mark ‘Chennai FC’ and the accompanying unique artwork. For the purpose of clarity, our client does not assert monopoly over the constituent words ‘Chennai’ and ‘FC’, which it is duly aware of being in the public domain and only reasonably and properly claims monopoly over the unique and coined combination ‘Chennai FC’ and its derivatives and variations.”
The notice further states that ‘Chennaiyin FC’ has “not obtained any permission, both express and implied from our client (Chennai FC) to use their trademark and the same amounts to violation of the intellectual property right vested with our client.
“Furthermore, your use of the mark ‘Chennaiyin FC’ without permission amounts to infringement of the equitable and common law right vested with our client who is the admitted prior adopter, continual user and the only person using the said mark till date across the world.”
Legal proceedingsThe release also says Chennai Football Club will begin legal proceedings if the owners of the ‘Chennayin FC’ do not remove the reference of ‘Chennai FC’ on or before October 3, 2014.
