Fifa promoting only their own

Countdown to kick-off/Legal wrangles: WM 2006, World Cup 2006, World Cup Germany, Germany 2006, Fussball *WM, Fussball *WM 2006 - these are just some of the 70 or so phrases and logos registered as trademarks by Fifa in the run-up to this tournament.

Though the competition itself is due to finish in Berlin on July 9th, the legal battles over copyright and marketing disputes connected with this World Cup look set to drag on for months yet as the German Federal Courts and EU authorities consider a series of cases prompted by Fifa's determined protection of its commercial interests.

A string of cases connected with the competition have already come before the courts here in Germany but several more will not now be decided until the event is over and all but the lawyers have turned their attention elsewhere.

Most of the cases centre on the use of 70 or so phrases or logos that Fifa registered as trademarks here four years ago. Others relate to attempts by companies to fool people into thinking they have an official link to the competition some of which, the organisers believe, cross legally permissible boundries.

Fifa has already won cases against confectionary manufacturer Ferrero and an internet betting firm that wanted to establish a side called wm2006.com. It has been criticised, however, for the particularly zealous way it has championed the interests of its backers.

The "clean zones" (those areas which are supposed to be free of advertising for the duration of the tournament) demanded by football's government body have included not just the stadiums themselves but considerable areas around them with at least one including a block of apartments and a venue at which games were to be broadcast on a big screen.

The latter event, like many of the publicly-backed "fans festivals" being run in cities here, became a major battleground with organisers informed that no sponsorship could be accepted from companies that were rivals of official World Cup partners. The involvement of local beer companies became a contentious issue and Fifa's solution was to offer support for some of the events from its own sponsor in this area, Budweiser. Predictably, this met with less than universal enthusiasm from the German population.

In their defence, leading Fifa officials insist that with sponsorship from the World Cup, which is the organisation's only event to turn a profit, accounting for a huge proportion of revenues, they simply have to be vigilant.

"The sponsorships are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and what we are selling is exclusivity," says Gregor Lentze, marketing director for the tournament. "If we didn't take this sort of thing seriously, people would accuse us of being unprofessional."

The stakes are high with 15 international firms paying €40 million each for official partner status here in Germany and six local companies contributing a further €78 million between them for slightly lesser bragging rights. Coca-Cola's contribution is part of a €400 million deal that extends to the year 2022.

Fifa alleged 1,900 instances of copyright infringement in connection with the 2002 World Cup when some 3.2 million items of merchandise were confiscated and the number this time around had reached 1,600 by the start of last month. It has repeatedly been ridiculed in the German media, however, for what is perceived as over-zealousness.

Many of the ambush campaigns carried out, such those mounted by Pepsi, Nike and Lufthansa, are well planned and push rather than cross the boundries but Fifa have sought to further restrict rivals of their backers and Michel Stulz-Herrenstadt of major commercial law firm Lovells observes that its regulations "test the limits of German law and, in our view, occasionally exceed those limits".

Nevertheless, Fifa will continue to do battle during the weeks ahead.

"In 2002, a major corporation paid a fan from Costa Rica $5,000 to drag a 100-metre advertising banner into a stadium," says Lentze. "That's the reality of what we're dealing with."

*WM stands for Weltmeisterschaft, World Cup in German.