Australia's Super 14 rugby team, the Western Force, says it did not take all the proper patent precautions in New Zealand when registering its name.
"We registered the name and took all the proper patent precautions in Australia, but we didn't search New Zealand to the same extent," said the
company's Perth chief executive Peter O'Meara.
The new Perth outfit, which launched its name and black swan logo in a blaze of publicity on April 19 ahead of next year's competition, is working with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) to try to resolve what has the potential to become a costly dispute with National Bank Cup netball side the Force, The Australian newspaper reports.
There are also potential legal issues with Nike, manufacturers of the Air Force basketball shoe.
O'Meara said all the legal advice he had received indicated there was sufficient differentiation between the Western Force, with its swan logo, and the logos and brand names of the other organisations.
Eleanor Simmons, chief executive of the Auckland-based Netball North Harbour which fields the Force declined to comment on the similarity of names, other than to confirm the matter had been referred to Netball NZ which was acting on its behalf.
A spokesman for Nike Australia said yesterday the company was alerted to the possible conflict in brand names by the ARU last week.
"Obviously we would like to resolve this matter but until we have advice from our legal department at head office (in Portland, Oregon) that it is not conflicting with our intellectual property, we can't comment further," the spokesman said.
ARU spokesman Strath Gordon said the union had taken a proactive approach after being made aware last week there might be issues over Perth's choice of name.
"Hopefully, we can solve this before it gets too much further down the track," Gordon said.
O'Meara said he did not consider the similarities in branding to be a setback for the new team. "We're not changing our name".
"We're working through it...we're not ignoring it but we're not looking to change the name either."
- NZPA
