Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo holds several trademark rights, particularly at European Union level, including a CR7 trademark for drinks, filed in February 2022.
In June 2022, he decided to oppose through his Portuguese counsel an international trademark designating the European Union CR7 (logo), which also targeted goods of class 32.
Not much to say about the comparison of signs and goods, they are undeniably close. The problem is the date of the filing of the CR7 mark (logo) owned by a Thai company.
Indeed, in trademark law, it is necessary to have the oldest rights to be able to oppose third parties. However, if Ronaldo’s mark dates from February 14, 2022, the mark he opposed dated from January 25, 2022 under priority of a filing of August 20, 2021…
So not only was the priority of the filing not taken into consideration, but more surprisingly, even the date of the trademark filing in the European Union was clearly earlier than Ronaldo’s.
The European Office (EUIPO) consequently and unsurprisingly rejected this opposition in November 2022.
It remains to be seen whether the Thai company will respond by attacking the footballer’s rights.
