The team considers that the absence of the shield damages their image and deprives them of the possibility to license its use.

The Manchester United is a team that in recent years has not enjoyed success which usually its history. And in the absence of winning things on the field, the team is now looking for victory in the courts , and for a somewhat incomprehensible reason. As revealed by The Guardian , Manchester United has sued those responsible for Football Manager , Sports Interactive studio and SEGA, for not including the team’s shield in the game, but its real name along with a generic shield.

This may sound strange, but it has an explanation. Apparently, United believes that the fact that Football Manager 2020 uses the real name of the team without showing its official shield damages the image of the club , and most importantly, “deprives its official owner of the right that the club is licensed, “according to its representative. Or, in other words, it prevents them from charging the game for the use of their shield , since the game does not use it.

At the preliminary hearing of the trial, the club’s lawyer, Simon Malynicz, stated that fans “expect to see the club’s crest next to its name … and this failure to do so constitutes misuse of the brand.” Anyone who plays Football Manager will know that shields are not a problem, with fan-made image packs for every club, player, and employee in their database. And here, Manchester United’s lawyer claims that SEGA and SI have “encouraged” its use by “supporting patch providers in various ways.”

“And therefore they have benefited directly from this by avoiding the need to purchase any license and enjoy higher sales with their game, ” Malynicz explained. For his part, attorney Roger Wyand, representative of the defence, explained that the use of a generic shield is more than obvious proof that “the use of the Manchester United shield has not been licensed”, so there is nothing to infringe.

He also explains that restricting the use of the team name in the game would be ” an irrational restriction on freedom of expression “, in addition to pointing out that Manchester United itself has contacted them numerous times over the years to use the database Sports Interactive and its browsing and analytical tools, without any problems between the two parties.

In this way, the representative of Sports Interactive and SEGA in this case affirms that it is more than obvious that there is not and will not be any damage to the club brand due to the use of its name in the game without an official shield. We do not know how this lawsuit will end, although it does not seem that the club will make friends in this way.

Source: The Guardian

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