Friday, August 04, 2006

Head Butt Trademark


BEIJING - A Chinese man has registered an image of French captain Zinedine Zidane's infamous head-butt in last month's World Cup final as his trademark, a local newspaper reported Thursday. Zhao Xiaokai, a general manager of a public relations firm specializing in sports, is now considering selling the rights to the black-and-white silhouette, which depicts the soccer star ramming his head into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi during the July 9 final, the Beijing Daily said. Zhao paid 2,000 yuan (US$250; euro196) to register the trademark for clothing, shoes, hats and beer products, and has invited bids of 1 million yuan (US$125,000; euro98,000) for the rights, the report said. "Two days after the World Cup ended, I started thinking about trying to trademark the image," Zhao was quoted as saying. "This image is highly recognizable. But by using silhouettes, I can avoid infringing on the soccer star's image rights."

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