WAXAHACHIE, Texas \u2014 From the official words, slogans, emblems and even the official typeface, there are some rules for anyone trying to score big during the World Cup using its brand and logo.<\/p>\n
During this time of year, you\u2019re going to see businesses, organizations and companies have merchandise and decorations that say \u201cWorld Cup Soccer.\u201d But can they use those words? And how about even the FIFA logo?<\/p>\n
Richard Womack made sure the brews were bubbling inside his business. He\u2019s the owner of Railport Brewing Company in Waxahachie, south of Dallas. And just by looking at the decor hanging in and outside of his company, it\u2019s clear what\u2019s on his mind and on the minds of his fellow entrepreneurs down the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup that was four years ago. Each year you just watch a little more and more,\u201d said Womack.<\/p>\n
Among the shirts, banners and even a massive ball that Womack and his fellow business owners are repping, there are some precautions they took to make sure the decor didn\u2019t dip into a dilemma for their businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came up with the clever idea to not, you know, to not use FIFA World Cup, all that stuff like that, so working with the city and Laurie, we came up with the Waxahachie Giving Cup,\u201d said Womack.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a friendly competition between restaurants in the city that are representing participating World Cup countries.<\/p>\n
The goal is to see which restaurant can raise the most money for Care Services, a local nonprofit.<\/p>\n
But even in the branding for the competition, Womack said they had to go to the drawing board more than once.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned a few things along the way; some of our images and artwork we changed several times. This right here originally said, FIFA World Cup. And then we took the FIFA off, knowing that. But we didn\u2019t know that we couldn\u2019t use World Cup or say World Cup in that sense,\u201d said Womack.<\/p>\n
FIFA does not play about its brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight, yeah, you have to have a license to do that. And I\u2019ve looked into FIFA\u2019s trademarks specifically. They have a slew of trademarks,\u201d said Daphne Benford-Smith, senior counsel at Signature Law Partners PLLC.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all listed in the FIFA Intellectual Property Guidelines for this year\u2019s games, from the official emblem, word mark, slogans, host city logos and much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if people want to use the name or the logo in an official capacity, they have to obtain a license; otherwise, they will be hit with a cease and desist,\u201d said Benford-Smith. \u201cBecause it looks like FIFA themselves is endorsing this event or that they\u2019re getting something from this event, when they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with 48 teams represented playing across three host countries, how can FIFA police that?<\/p>\n
Spectrum News reached out to FIFA and the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee for comment on how it would police its brand. We didn\u2019t get a response.<\/p>\n
Benford-Smith, a trademark attorney, said typically what organizations or companies of that size or magnitude will do is have a dedicated team that looks for that and that they may even use AI or some other sort of technology to scour the internet and see how people are using its brand.<\/p>\n
Womack and his Waxahachie crew still got the message, loud and clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in a lot of the places that are decorating, you won\u2019t find a lot of the FIFA or World Cup. So, it\u2019s just we went with the flags,\u201d said Womack.<\/p>\n
Belgium and German flags adorn Womack\u2019s brewery.<\/p>\n
Come July 19, the world and his city will know which country came out on top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WAXAHACHIE, Texas \u2014 From the official words, slogans, emblems and even the official typeface, there are some rules…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132,8455,1570,102,138,223,82,12691,27,29,28,1569,835,3692,29003],"class_list":["post-338473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin","tag-blessing-iwuchukwu","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-sports-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}