Manchester United will have another name in Football Manager
Friends of Football Manager Guru today in the next editions of our favorite manager game, Manchester United will have another name in Football Manager. In fact after the various legal problems related to the trademark of the English team (as it happened with Juventus in the past) it is now official that Manchester United is not allowed to use the name in FM. The red devils from the edition of FM 2022 will be called: Manchester UFC.
Manchester United will have another name in Football Manager
This decision stems from the legal dispute that occurred in May 2021 where the renowned Premier League club, launched a lawsuit against Sports Interactive and Sega for infringing on its trademark.
Countering, Sega and Sports Interactive said the use of the club’s name in the popular simulation series was “a legitimate reference to the Manchester United soccer team in a football context,” and pointed out that it had been used in Football Manager and its predecessor Championship Manager since 1992 “without complaint from the plaintiff.”
United also claimed that Football Manager infringed on its trademark of the Manchester United logo by not using the official Manchester United crest in the game. This “deprives the registered owner of his right to license the club crest,” Manchester United’s lawyers said.
“Buyers of the game expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester United … and this lack amounts to misuse,” United argued, although the club’s lawyer agreed this argument was “somewhat novel, and certainly in the context of video games, but it is certainly debatable.”
Against this, the lawyer for Sega and Sports Interactive said the “simplified” club badge used in the game was “one of 14 generic logo templates that is randomly chosen by the Football Manager game engine each time a new game is started” and “clearly indicates that the use of the [logo of] Manchester United is not licensed by the plaintiff.”
On the name issue, counsel for Sega and Sports Interactive said United was trying to “prevent legitimate competition in the field of video games by preventing parties not licensed by the plaintiff from using the name of the Manchester United soccer team within such games.”
“The plaintiff consented to the defendants’ use of the Manchester United soccer team name in the Football Manager game and cannot now complain about such use,” reads the written defense of Sega and Sports Interactive.
Manchester United will be Manchester UFC in FM 2022
In short, a real legal battle. What we now know for sure is that Manchester United from 2022 onward will be called Manchester UFC.
Conclusions
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