CLASS 46
Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.
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MONDAY, 30 AUGUST 2010
The weird case of the ZAHIA trade marks applications
In April 2010, the name of four members of the French soccer team were mentioned in a sex scandal. Franck Ribéry, Sydney Govou, Hatem Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema were mentioned as potential clients of Zahia Dehar, a young prostitute who might have been under eighteen at the time of the facts.
The forename Zahia rapidly became a buzz word. In June 2010, Ms Dehar applied for several trade marks including her forename and covering a wide range of products and services of various nature (as one can imagine). However prior trade mark applications for ZAHIA and the phonetic equivalent ZAYA had just been filed some time before in the name of ... another French sportsman, Frederic Michalak (scrum half and fly-half in the national rugby team).
After this was mentioned in the press, Michalak's agent denied that the rugbyman actually filed the applications; it appears that a yet-unknown individual used Michalak's name and address when filing the INPI online forms. I can only wonder how anyone could benefit from such identity theft?
Posted by: Frédéric Glaize @ 14.13
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The weird case of the ZAHIA trade marks applications
After this was mentioned in the press, Michalak's agent denied that the rugbyman actually filed the applications; it appears that a yet-unknown individual used Michalak's name and address when filing the INPI online forms. I can only wonder how anyone could benefit from such identity theft?
Posted by: Frédéric Glaize @ 14.13
Tags:
Sharing on Social Media? Use the link below...Perm-A-Link: https://www.marques.org/blogs/class46?XID=BHA1984
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