Status: 11:25 a.m
Likelihood of confusion? Uefa is taking action against a pizza called “Champignons League”.
Those: pa / ZB / motivio
The European football union Uefa is bothered by a pizza called “Champignons League” from Giessen. Now the association is even threatening to sue for trademark infringement. The German manufacturer is fighting back.
EAn ordinary pizza topped with mushrooms causes trouble at the European football union Uefa. The umbrella organization called on the restaurateur and manufacturer of frozen pizzas, Shadi Souri from Giessen, to withdraw the trademark application for his “Champignons League” pizza. The name is very similar to the football Champions League, with which Uefa earns several hundred million euros every year. The company Pizzabande GmbH published a corresponding letter from a lawyer on Instagram.
“Shortly before Christmas, we received a letter from Uefa that we were violating license rights and that we had to change the name of the pizza,” Souri told BILD. He stuck to his pizza. In January, another letter came from Uefa: the brand should disappear from the registers within seven days, otherwise there would be a risk of a lawsuit. The deadline expired last Friday.
The businessman, who supplies around 1,000 supermarkets with his frozen pizzas, is now waiting. “We let it depend on what Uefa is doing now,” he said. He does not concede that a possible lawsuit has any great prospects of success. At the end of October he had the pizza registered as a trademark. “We also paid a lot of money for this protected brand. Why should we take them off the market?” Nevertheless, Souri is in contact with his lawyers.
Cheese and ham pizza is called “Häm & Bäm”
The idea of the frozen pizzas came about during the corona pandemic when his pizzeria had to close. The variant “Champignons League” is not the only unusual name in the range. For example, the cheese and ham pizza is called “Häm & Bäm”. “I didn’t want to just give the pizzas any boring names,” Souri said. The creative spirit could now be his undoing.
Uefa said on Monday evening: “As is usual in such cases, our trademark lawyers will write to the commercial company and politely ask them to withdraw their trademark.” It is a major commercial company and not just a single small pizzeria , the opinion emphasizes.
