How does a successful football club protect and maintain its intellectual property? Emma Jones looks at the trademark strategy of Manchester United PLC to find out how the world’s most famous football brand protects its trademarks from infringement.
When Manchester United Football Club conducted a survey into the world’s most popular football teams in 2003/4, they emerged three times as popular as any other English Premier League or European Soccer Team. Chinese and UK fan bases alone represented 33 million fans, and just under half of the population of Singapore nominated Manchester United as their preferred international team. The result is impressive, but certainly not surprising: the fortunes of Manchester United are followed and celebrated on a global scale.
But how has Manchester United established itself as the world’s most famous football club? Sporting achievements aside, much of the Club’s reputation can be attributed to its sophisticated approach to marketing its brand. The Club has invested heavily in its team strip and associated merchandise, and there is now a Manchester United Megastore, a Manchester United Museum, two interactive ‘Red Cafes’ (in Old Trafford and Singapore), a multimedia website and a Manchester United TV channel which shows documentaries, games and films. Supporters can use a Club mobile phone, save their money with the club’s financial saving services and even get married in the team strip. It’s all come a long way from the early days of the Club when a group of railway workers got together to play football at Newton Heath in 1878.
Building up such an identifiable brand has allowed Manchester United to establish itself at the forefront of popular football culture and ensured a steady income from sponsorship, merchandising and broadcast revenue. But creating a strong brand is only part of the battle; as a prime target for counterfeiting, the Club also needs to ensure that only legitimate merchandise makes its way into the marketplace.
Protecting the brand
Manchester United identified early on the need to protect and exploit their brand, establishing their Trade Marks Department in Old Trafford in the early 1990s when football merchandise really took off. They are one of only three British football clubs to have a designated department dealing with brand protection, and although the team may be small – it currently employs only two full-time staff – it is able to ensure worldwide protection of the brand, using contacts and legal representatives in strategic locations all over the world.
From the head office in Old Trafford, the Trade Marks Department co-ordinates the registration and enforcement of IPR worldwide, and concentrates on monitoring the Club’s trademarks in the UK. The team shares its time and resources between a number of tasks: these range from the registration of IPR to vigilant marketplace monitoring, regular use of ‘cease and desist’ letters, and litigation when necessary. The Club has worked hard to build itself a reputation for not tolerating IP infringement in any form, and this has paid positive dividends for the brand.
‘Protecting our brand adds to its value. We appreciate sponsors invest in Manchester United because they indentify it as a succesful brand. If the brand were diluted in any way, the association may be less desirable.’
A lucrative portfolio
Manchester United currently has 77 trademarks registered in various countries around the world, and the number continues to grow. They register trademarks in all the territories important to the development of the Business, and take enforcing their IPR very seriously.
In addition to the names ‘Manchester United’, ‘Manchester United Football Club’ and ‘Man U’, the Club has also registered its Crest in various classifications, ranging from clothing to financial services. Strident registration and enforcement has allowed Manchester United to derive substantial revenue from merchandising sports goods and memorabilia bearing the Club’s trademarks. The team hit the headlines in 2002 when they announced their most lucrative sponsorship deal to date: in return for £300 million over 13 years, sportswear giant Nike became the Club’s official sponsors and the owners of worldwide rights to all Manchester United merchandise and global retail operations.
But such licensing deals wouldn’t be possible without a comprehensive IP protection regime, as the Club is well aware: ‘Protecting our brand adds to its value. We appreciate sponsors invest in Manchester United because they identify it as a successful brand. If the brand were diluted in any way the association may be less desirable.’
Watching for infringement
Manchester United operates a strict, zero tolerance approach to IP infringement no matter what the offense. The Club is as severe about punishing common counterfeits, such as hats and scarves, as they are about the unapproved use of the team Crest on the Internet. The Trade Marks Department actively looks for counterfeits, and wherever possible raids the manufacturing source.
Different enforcement procedures are in place depending on the territory, but many of the Club’s anti-counterfeiting procedures are consistent throughout the world. For example, all Manchester United Merchandising Limited products bear security labels. These labels prevent counterfeiting, and they also assist the authorities to spot a genuine from a fake. E-mail has also streamlined their work. The Department receive digital images from its lawyers and investigators around the world and can reply in an instant whether they are fake or genuine.
As is the case for many brand owners, the Internet poses a huge problem for Manchester United, and the Club’s Trade Mark Department monitors it on a daily basis using word- and image-recognition software, and by conducting ad-hoc searches. This combination of approaches ensures they locate websites where Club trademarks are used or referred to without permission. As a football club with many children fans, they are particularly vigilant against pornographic websites that use the Club’s trademarks to lure visitors.
The Trade Marks Department also works closely with other football and fashion brands when it comes to policing their IPR online. They aren’t secretive about the way they look for IPR abuse and are keen to lead the field in football brand protection. Only by working together to safeguard IPR and by being vigilant against infringement in whatever form it occurs, will teams such as Manchester United ensure that they keep one step ahead of the counterfeiters.
This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 10
