FIFA wants to secure word marks

The World Football Association has been trying for some time to protect the rights to the word combinations of World Cup and World Cup with the corresponding year as a trademark. This was reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The association holds the sole television and marketing rights. Worldwide, broadcasters pay Fifa 1.6 billion francs for the broadcasting rights. And the association earns a total of CHF 688 million from companies that want to advertise with the football competition. However, Fifa takes rigorous action against companies that do so without a license agreement. This is because FIFA has to finance the competitions with the income from advertising partners. The 2006 World Cup cost the association around one billion francs. 1200 legal violations were discovered in connection with the 2006 World Cup. However, most of these were settled out of court. Only 150 cases went to court.