A handful of plush bears for pets dressed in international soccer jerseys are in violation of FIFA licensing
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With a week to go before the World Cup kicks off in Vancouver, Dawn Moulton hung a handful of plush bears for pets dressed in international soccer jerseys in the window of her Mount Pleasant pet store and then listed them on its website.
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“I wanted customers to be able to have their pups join in on the fun,” said Moulton, owner of Cascadia Natural Pet Supply.
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What was meant to be a celebratory effort quickly turned into an unexpected dispute for the small-business owner over FIFA trademark use.
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Moulton purchased 20 of the bears from Kong, a major U.S. pet products manufacturer. She assumed she had secured necessary licensing rights.
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Moulton received an email Friday from a Kong salesperson who sold her the bears, warning her to remove FIFA-related materials from the website or she’d face a fine.
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She said the warning left her puzzled because it came from the same salesperson who marketed the toys to retailers more than a year earlier using FIFA-related language.
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An email sent to Moulton encouraged retailers to order the toys and stated that buyers would receive them in time for FIFA.
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As of Saturday, most of the bears Moulton purchased for the shop remain unsold, including plush bears with France, England, Canada, Mexico, Italy and U.S. jerseys. If she sold out, she expected to make $100 profit.
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“It’s so silly. It’s such a small item to have this level of backlash,” she said, noting that she uses most of the profits from her business to help cover veterinary bills for five rescue parrots she cares for at the store.
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“It feels like a giant corporation is trying to steal profit from birds with cancer,” she said.
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FIFA restricts the use of protected branding, including FIFA and World Cup, without a commercial licence in marketing or sales. In Vancouver, bylaw officers note that as part of host city responsibilities, infringements can result in fines of up to $1,000.
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On its website, FIFA says that because sponsorship and licensing revenue helps fund its soccer tournaments and development programs worldwide, it monitors online marketplaces and social media for infringements.
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“I thought for sure such a big company would have paid the fee to use the FIFA and World Cup trademark,” Moulton said. “I didn’t second-guess it for a second.”
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On Kong’s website, the toy is described as a “limited edition sport bear.” However, other pet supply retailers in North America, including Bonez & Pawz, have promoted the bear as a World Cup bear on social media.
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A request for comment from Kong was not available.
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Moulton has now renamed the toys in store and online.
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“I’m calling them the FUBAR bears because this is what they mean to me,” she said. “Is a small pet store really who you want to stomp on, FIFA?”
