The Spanish club La Liga Powerhouse Barcelona has filed a trademark lawsuit against Istanbul-based Barca Textile for infringement of trademark rights. Barca (or Barça) is the colloquial name of the La Liga champion and a petition to a Turkish court by the club's Turkish lawyer Nazlı Deniz Kol says this is how the club is known across the world. The club has countless trademarks in nearly 100 countries and a large fan base in Turkey as well.
The lawsuit comes after the club, which plans investments in Turkey, failed to register its trademark when it turned out that Barca had already secured the name officially after applying to the state-run patent authority in Turkey. The lawyer, however, says Barca has been in use as the name of the football club since 1899.
However, Barca Textile's owner Ali Öziçer reveals that company, founded in 1997, is named after "boat" in Italian, as a logo of a boat next to the company's name indicates. It has been exporting clothes to many European countries under the name and that it is a registered trademark in those countries. It recently applied for a trademark in Spain, but was turned down. The company found out that the Barcelona club was planning to open a restaurant in Turkey under this name and had applied for trademark rights. It filed an objection to their application, and they filed a lawsuit in return.
