Inter Milan filed a suit against David Beckham

Italian football club ‘Inter Milan’ has filed suit against British soccer star David Beckham. The reason for the suit is that the Beckham's new soccer club’s title infringes on the Inter Milan’s trademark rights. It seems to be an worldwide issue because it is a lawsuit between prominent club of Italian Serie A and famous soccer star.

Inter Milan and David Beckham

Inter Milan is an independent football club from the Italian football club AC Milan, official name is the Internazionale Milano Football Club. It is called 'Inter' which means 'international' by accepting not only domestic players but also foreign players. Meanwhile, David Beckham has retired from active duty, and he has set up a football club in Miami since 2014. He was allowed to join the club in January of last year with the name 'Inter Miami' and will be participating in the American Football League from 2020.

'Inter' is the exclusive name of Inter Milan?

The problem is that the 'Inter' part of 'Inter Miami' names overlap with Inter Milan. The Inter Milan insisted that only Inter Milan can use the name "Inter". It also claimed that Inter Miami is a trademark infringement of Inter Milan if it used the name "Inter" because it registered its name as a trademark, and asked the judge to make the name "Inter Miami" unavailable as the trademark.

intomark.com (WIPS's trademark search database) 

Trademark of Inter Milan

Inter Milan and Inter Miami

At first glance, it seems that the name 'Inter' does not have a distinctive identity as a trademark because it is the first part of International (Internazionale in Italian) which means 'international'. However, the name of Inter Milan is registered as a trademark, so it is difficult to judge easily. We should wait and see how the results of the two famous football teams of ‘Inter’ are going to come out.