News

Manchester United F.C. raises lawsuit against Football Manager makers

Club alleges that Sports Interactive and Sega have infringed its trademark

Manchester United F.C. raises lawsuit against Football Manager makers

English Premier League club Manchester United F.C. is taking legal action against the developer of Football Manager, Sports Interactive, as well as its publisher Sega.

As reported by The Guardian, the organisation alleges that they are infringing its trademark in using the club's name within Football Manager, alongside not using Manchester United's official club crest. Said logo is in fact generated from a generic template and clearly says that it is not licensed from the club.

Sega and Sports Interactive have refuted Manchester United's lawsuit, pointing out that the club hasn't complained about the companies using its name in the Football Manager series, in addition to its predecessor Championship Manager, since 1992. Staff from Manchester United have also worked with Sports Interactive in the past to assist with scouting and research.

Benefited from trademark

Manchester United has attempted to amend its lawsuit to also include allegations that player-made mods also mean that Sports Interactive and Sega are benefitting from its trademark. Mr Justice Morgan has reserved his judgement on this amendment until a later date.

"The claimant has acquiesced in the use by the defendants of the name of the Manchester United football team in the Football Manager game and cannot now complain of such use," said Sports Interactive and Sega in a joint statement.

Sega's profits recently rocketed by an impressive 421.3 per cent year-over-year with its video games sector rising by 50.9 per cent too.

Head on over to PCGamesInsider.biz for the full story.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.