Well then I am depressed for society...

The 'traditional/purist angle' that MH are attemting to market themselves as is an insult to football fans intelligence. Why pretend to be something that you're clearly not. Do these fuckwit marketing/PR guru's think that people are that gullable swallowing this 'traditional' crap. It's a bit like "the burgers are better at Hungry Jacks" line you hear on their ads. Same rubbish, slightly different taste

MH are just another carbon copy franchise owned & operated by FFA appointed industry partners.

Even SM knocked back their offer of a stake for the use of our 1st class 'traditional' football facilities. That's how good they're going and how desperate they are.

'Tradition' has no place in 'new football' so go and look for some stupid and gullable customers elsewhere.

6 months b4 k.o and STILL no official name, colours, badge, ground, headquarters.......just a lot of bland statements and rhetoric.

I don't understand how VPL viewers are so put off by this new team? Do you feel threatened? Are they really taking away your supporters? What's wrong with a new team in a league you'll never be in?

I just don't get it. Why all the hate?

Hi All,

FYI..this is the update to the tradmark opposition...

TM Number 1260983

OPPOSITION
Acceptance Advertised: 14-JAN-2010 Applicant: Football Federation Australia Limited
ACN: 106478068

Address for Service: Football Federation Australia Limited
ACN: 106478068

Opponent: LORD MAYOR'S CHARITABLE FUND
Address for Service: GADENS LAWYERS
Status: Notice of opposition lodged
Notice of Opposition Due: 14-APR-2010
Lodged: 22-JAN-2010
Evidence in Support Due: 22-APR-2010


The LMCF has the TM for "THE HEART OF MELBOURNE"

looks like we're waiting a while now :(

wow it really looks like this whole process has been one brick wall after another for heart. ](*,)

Great investigative work Murmur! Well that's solved the club name question! Along with the 442 tweet it's effectively out of the bag.

I agree with Nuggets and macktheknife - this has been a long drawn out process that has been one brick wall after another. I bet the club will finally be happy to have a name and identity to work from... start building some traction in a tough market.

You have to applaud the Board for the idea of community involvement in club naming, the idea was good in practice, but was shambolic in exectution. It was a good thought to generate ground level interest but legals, delays etc have evaporated whatever interest there was in that competition (that now clearly cannot have a winner as the club themselves had Melbourne Heart as the name).

Despite this litany of cock-ups (which it must be said are not all of the clubs making - particularly if you believe some of the posts in this thread), I have no doubt that there will still be people who'll want to support the new club - as someone said 6000 registrations of interest is nothing to sneeze at - it's bigger than many existing crowd sizes.

I think people will support the Heart (we can be 99% consfident that this is the name - despite the effort of that post with the bats!) if they:

a) want to support the A-league with an alternative to the Victory,
b) feel a connection with whatever comments are put forth by the new club
c) are a new football 'consumer' and see excitment in a heart signing/system/colours/logo etc
d) are a traditional football fan that for some reason want to now support an A-league club

Anyway, that sordid saga of club name/colours etc now seems to finally be over. Now for the really exciting process (as already said there's only 4 players and 4 Football Dep't staff) of building a team.

Now lets see the badge!

WHO IS THE CLUBS BACKER OR BACKERS?

I suppose all we really know now is that "Melbourne Heart FC" is what they've decided on as a name...and assuming the above opposition (or any other oppositions) to the trademark is discounted, i think it's safe to say that's what it'll be. (i'm no trademark expert...so i'm happy to be corrected on this one). As for colours...well it seems red and white, but no one's confirmed whether it's hoops, stripes or sash. I'm kinda hoping for hoops as it's not been done before in the a-league :)

anyways....as per usual...time will tell, but i'll keep an eye on the trademark stuff and post if anything new comes to hand :)

Peter Sidwell + board.

It is definitely stripes -

So finally the glamor colors have entered the HAL

Read and White

Red White and Black for Rovers

don;t have to be a marketing genius to work out the strategy

Blue and White are still available???????


My tip is that the new stadium will have red seats as the heart will e the weaker of the 2

Edited by chris: 29/1/2010 01:46:39 AM

I have seen a photo showing an area with green seats.

I hadn't kept my eye open for that one - assuming the pre-Christmas correspondence was a co-existence agreement, obviously not, in which case I'll reverse my position on the name - it's all up in the air now. I'm stunned that the FFA proceeded with the mark without obtaining a co-existence agreement.

The opposition period is open until 14 April 2010, LMCF has until 22 April 2010 to present it's evidence that HEART shouldn't be allowed to get their mark (they can apply for a further 6 months if they wish). One they lodged their evidence, HEART will have 3 months to lodge their evidence in response (again, they can apply for six months of extensions if they wish), then LMCF has another 3 months to respond to that (plus 3 months of extensions), THEN the matter goes to a hearing, which - if expedited - will take another 3-6 months, before the result is decided X months later, depending on who the hearing officer is and how complicated the case becomes.

In short, HEART have three options -
(1) Use the mark anyway, hope to win the case, and if they lose risk being sued for trade mark infringement by the LMFC
(2) Negotiate a co-existence agreement with the LMFC, which they should have done sometime in the last 15 months!
(3) Change names.

On No 3 - it's interesting to note that the FFA still haven't requested expedited examination of any of the other applications yet, which would infer that they are still planning on going with HEART.

Could someone explain to me what this trademark business/quoting means?

That's what caught my eye. But I have no idea. Shit - they'd be better of using the Bats IMO. Way cooler.

Peter S., Scott Munn - If you read this - Some explanations please. There are some passionate football supporters nervous about the debacle which has been the naming of this club.

True.

Thanks for clearing that up Ben :)...so basically they're in the s#!t...cos whose to say that the Demons won't put in a notice of opposition too...that could make it all drag on for a long time....i say go with "SPORTING MELBOURNE FC"...doesn't appear to have any TM's close, and is a much better name in my opinion.

Maybe we should amass them with emails?

Depends if they have tried to negotiate with the LMCF previously or not. If they haven't, it may well be that a 'small' cash donation to the charity, or even adopting it as the 'club charity', playing their opening friendly on it's behalf, etc., would be a way to placate the current owners of the mark. I'd be stunned if the marks weren't sighted in the examiner's original report, in which case the opposition will be very strong.

Sporting Melbourne FC carries it's own problems. South Melbourne have extensive prior use of the initials SMFC with relation to football. Whilst this wouldn't preclude Sporting Melbourne, it would certainly limit their ability to abbreviate their name in any merchandising or promotional material.

The surprising thing is that the FFA haven't expedited the examination process for any of the three names. An application for expedited examination is free - and if filed at the time of the applications they would have already had their examination by now (as it is they will have to wait until mid/late February) and would know where they stood on the other names. They seem VERY keen on MELBOURNE HEART FC, that's for certain.

It's not HEART that's the problem - it's the FFA.

This is actually quite cool nice stripe and good logo

I understand this - but it's the Heart board's responsibility to field questions from the football community about their club.

The club really has been transparent only with their football side of things. Coach, Playing style, and signings so far.

Two seperate people today mentioned that they would be supporting hearts next year. both new the colours too. im guessing there are a few fans out there who kinda missed the boat with the victory and are keen on hearts.

I moved to Melbourne in March 2006, so I missed season 1. I never attended a game till season 3, but still Victory failed to grab my attention.

Last season, and this season, I've attended probably 5-6 games per season, but I've never really felt like a true supporter, If I miss a game because I have something on, it's not like I rush home to check the scores, check injuries etc.

I've played Football all my life, and grew up in the UK. Melbourne is now my hometown - but I feel no attachment to Victory. It's not like back home where kids choose a team, because their dad, or group of mates also do.

Heart however, provides a good opportunity to get on board something from the start. They may just turn out to be MVFC 2.0 - there's a good chance they'll just end up another rather ordinary franchise in the A-League.

Heart gives some of the people who missed the Victory boat, something to support now that the A-League has established itself.

Tell the truth, I actually have a lot of sympathy for Sidwell and co on this one. There's nothing more they can do until the FFA sort out the trade marks. I'm sure there's nothing more they'd like to do that make a statement, but you don't make statements against the FFA.

This whole naming dilemma is just dragging on and on.

Go with 'Melburnians FC' as the title, MFC as the abbreviation, and then let the fans choose a nickname.

Same way that Sydney FC fans call themselves the 'Skyblues', even though it isn't apart of their club's business name.

Melburnians is by far the best name of the lot. And if the fans want to the club to be known as the 'heart' then they can call the club that, and it will eventually stick.

Edited by FB: 29/1/2010 07:00:36 PM

It's true, they're between a rock and hard place, they can't do much. Don't get me wrong, they've done everything pretty well so far, just some sort of update on the naming issues etc. would be good.

Doesn't need to go into detail - "We've had a few hiccups with the naming rights. We've had a challenge from the Lord Mayors Trust regarding the use of a trademark which we've previously discussed with them, we're sorting through things, and still aim to make an announcement as previously expected after the Australian Open"

Hopefully with the Aus. Open out of the way tonight, we'll get a bit more information about the club tomorrow / Tuesday.

Australian Open has well and truely finished.
Any news, Melbourne Heart Syndicate?
Anyone?? :-k

Surely they'll wait a day or 2 so they can have their moment in the sun, rather than be shadowed by Fed's 16th Grand Slam win.

I'm guessing some time this week.