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Tiger-striped jersey: Copyright deemed unnecessary

KUALA LUMPUR (June 26, 2012): Former youth and sports minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman decided there was no need to copyright the tiger-striped design of the national sports jersey unveiled seven years ago, the Intellectual Property High Court heard today.

Former national sports institute chief executive officer Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz told the court he had raised the idea to protect the design as it was the right thing to do.

“Datuk Seri (Azalina) wanted to have the design available for everybody, so it was not pursued. It was not my responsibility to take steps, it was up to the Youth and Sports Ministry to do this,” he said under cross-examination by National Sports Council (NSC) lawyer Datuk Mohamad Bustaman Abdullah.

Ramlan said he felt it was important for the NSC management to take steps to protect the design.
He was testifying at the trademark dispute hearing between the NSC and sports apparel company Mesuma Sports Sdn Bhd over the striped design which was launched on Nov 14 2005.
Ramlan said the national aspirations of the jersey had been discussed several times at National Sports Council meetings.

“There was a general idea it would be tiger-striped,” said Ramlan, adding that the jersey was for the NSC to use for national athletes and promotional purposes.

The NSC is claiming it registered the design under the Industrial Designs Act through CR Sports in 2009.

This was followed by an agreement between the NSC and Telekom Malaysia (TM) to launch the Team Malaysia Panthera jersey on April 28 last year.

On April 6, last year, TM filed eight applications to register designs consisting of its corporate logo and incorporating the tiger stripes on the words “Team Malaysia”.

CR Sports filed six applications on May 3 last year to trademark the striped design.
However, Mesuma Sports was registered as the proprietor of the trademark for 10 years from July 9, 2009 to July 9, 2019.

The hearing continues before judge Datuk Hanipah Farukillah.



Tan Yi Liang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

Comments

  1. Skydancer27 June 2012 at 10:19 am

    Datuk Seri Azlina Othman is right, what copyright. As I can see the colour and the stripes are Malaysian sporting colours in all Sports events local and international. Go to any sport shops in Malaysia you can but a tiger stripe shirt, go to OCM they also sell the jersey and track top to anyone who care to pay. What copy right issue? Mesuma is a business entity, they printed the track suite and they sponsored our athletes in some of the Games. They just want to protect their interest la. No copyright and the Tiger stripes with that burnt orange colour is for all Malaysians.

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