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(IP) Goal for Maradona!
One more victory for the famous (ex) football player Diego Armando Maradona. However, for the time being, such victory happened on a different field, the Civil Court of Milan.
On December 2019 the Civil Court of Milan ordered to the famous Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana to indemnify the Argentinian player with the amount of 70,000 Euro (around 500,000 RMB) along with the payment of 13,000 Euro as attorney fees, as compensation due to the un-authorized use of the name of Maradona during a fashion show occurred in Naples in the 2016.
Long story short, the fashion duo composed by Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana has had one of their models walk down the catwalk wearing the white and blue jersey t-shirt – the colors of the footballer’s team – and sporting the name Maradona and his (now-retired) number 10 on it, which has been notoriously wore for years by the famous football player.
Source: carlospazvivo.com
Indeed, even those who are not based in Naples, or Italy at all, could probably know the mediatic power of Maradona, which became a real icon for Italians’ during the ’80-90.As consequence, in September 2017, Maradona filed a lawsuit in front of the Court of Milan Court where the fashion brand is headquartered, alleging that D&G had illegally exploited his name, image and reputation without permission.
Two years later, the judge ruled in favor of the footballer, stating that it is not fair to parasitically exploit another person's fame.
This is, in brief, what the Court deemed.Indeed, according to the judge, the name Maradona and its reputation has an important historical value when talking about football and it constitutes a synonymous of Italian excellence. Consequently, cannot be used without consent of the legitimate owner of the name by third parties for business purpose.
In particular, according to the judge, the use of the name of Maradona was explicitly finalized to take advantages from the attractiveness of the story of the famous football player.
This judgment made the news since it is pretty uncommon to see similar cases and it also represents a clear warning against the unauthorized use of name, image and reputation of famous persons. T
he 1986 FIFA World Cup winner initially demanded one million euros for the infringement. However, the Court has limited the compensation referring that the lack of a real manufacturing and sale of the t-shirt bearing the name "Maradona" justified the decrease of the quantification of damage. After all, 70,000 Euro for a single use during the catwalk-show is not bad.
Silvia Capraro
HFG Law&Intellectual Property
