December 2005
All Blacks Lose in Court
The New Zealand intellectual property office has refused the New Zealand rugby team’s application for a black rugby top that depicts a silver fern symbol.
The New Zealand Rugby Team have already registered trade marks for the words ”All Blacks” and a specialised silver fern and wanted to trade mark a black rugby top with white collar and a generic silver fern symbol to protect people from buying similar jerseys in the belief they were endorsed by The New Zealand Rugby Union.
Clothes manufacturers objected to the application on the basis that New Zealanders had the right to use other versions of the fern symbols and had been doing so for years.
The registry agreed with the clothes manufacturers and adjudicated that the application did not reach the requisite threshold of distinctiveness.
Briffa Comment
This serves as a useful reminder to brand owners of the requirement that a mark be distinctive of the goods or services it is used in and also that this is not always an easy threshold to meet – even for one of the most famous rugby teams in the world.
Amandeep Singh
Intellectual Property Solicitor
aman@briffa.com