Maradona’s heirs have won a legal battle in Europe

The General Court of the European Union on Tuesday agreed with the EU Intellectual Property Office by confirming its refusal to register the transfer of the Diego Maradona brand in favor of the Argentine company Sattvica, estate of former soccer player lawyer Matías Morla.

The court, located in Luxembourg, ruled this Tuesday that the documents provided in support of the request for the registration of the transfer do not justify its transfer to the benefit of Sattvica, which has a registered office in Buenos Aires, on the same line of the adopted decision. in March of 2022 by the EU Intellectual Property Office (Euipo, in English, and based in Alicante).

This long court battle It began in July 2001, when Diego Armando Maradona requested before the Euipo the registration as a Union trademark of the word sign Diego Maradona for various personal hygiene and pharmacy products, as well as for clothing, apparel foot and headgear, including sportswear and footwear.

The application also includes a wide and varied range of services, from catering and hospitality to IT and copyright management.

The trademark was registered in January 2008, twelve years before Maradona died in November 2020.

It all started after Diego’s death

Just two months after his death, in January 2021Sattvica asked Euipo to register the transfer of the brand and provided documents that Maradona himself would provide in his favor.

In particular, it showed an authorization for the commercial exploitation of the trademark dated December 26, 2015 and a consent agreement for the use of the trademark, which is undated.

Initially, Euipo registered the transfer in the registry, but the brand transfer was canceled at the request of Maradona’s heirs.

In a resolution in March 2022, Euipo considered that Sattvica did not provide documents duly accredited to the transfer of the trademark in its favor.

The General Court affirmed Euipo

In his opinion this Tuesday, The General Court denied Sattvica’s request to annul the second resolution of Euipo, also considered that the documents provided by said company do not formally justify the transfer of the brand in its favor within the framework of a contract signed between the two parties (Sattvica and Maradona).

Furthermore, since Maradona died before the application for registration of the transfer was submitted, Sattvica could not correct the irregularities found and could not present other documents, according to the court.

Against the resolutions of the General Court may file an appeal with the Court of Justicelimited to questions of law, within two months and ten days from notification of the resolution.