At the end of the day every A-League club is a corporate club, just as reliant on dollars as the next one. We are all franchises and Heart will be running a business as much as they are a club.

I'm surprised you've all forgotten about Peter Sidwell's quote in which he said he was looking to get a new type of "customer" on board. That's right. Not fans, not supporters... but "customers". Now there's some good community rhetoric.

Good luck on being 'embedded' in the community, whatever that means.

It's going to be relatively easy for Heart to come up with some fun chants, isn't it? I mean, the Heart is a very easy metaphor to play with. What will the cheer squad be called?

I can hear it already: "We want blood!"

So evil!

Apparently this has been leaked by the club.

I personally love it. Looks like a few of us made the mistake in assuming it was the Heart but if this is to be true it would be fantastic. I firstly voted for the Sporting Melbourne name, absolutely thought it was the way to go, but liked the Melbourne Heart name.

Also the name "The Bats" has an historical edge to it as the man who founded Melbourne was John Batman. Also the name will be like a secondary nick name and won't be like the Melbourne "Victory" or Perth "Glory". It will be Sporting Melbourne FC but will sometimes be referred to as "The Bats" eg. like Manchester United "The Red Devils" and Burnley "The Clarets".

Still don't know if this is true but I am hoping it is, very impressed. The traditionalfootball logo is brilliant and like the colours and top.

Think you've been had mate, nothing listed on the trademarks website and you would probably want to have approval before putting a complete kit and all together.

Was stated today that all would be revealed after the Australian Open was finished - didn't want the distraction of a massive sports event to detract from their announcement.

As I said, didn't know if it will be true, so don't think I was had.

Just saw it on another forum and thought I would post it here.

I actually love it to be honest. Wish they would go with it!

Makes sense to announce it after the Open. Where was this stated mate?

Was during the Sydney Jets game today - Cockeril and Harper brought it up, said they'd been notified by the club today.

As for the look, it is nice, go well when playing the mighty Victory in the new stadium. Can't wait for those games, they're going to be epic!

Thanks mate.

I agree can't wait for the battles.

Lets hope they aren't as one sided as your other rivalry with Adelaide! :cool:

Yeah, hopefully they are a bit of a contest. Also going to be great to be able to watch all 3 matches at the stadium - easiest away trip in the league!

I like the bat concept, but not the cartoon bat. Shitty deal with having to wait until the end of the Open. What forum did you find it on?

That is actually amazing. I know it is a fake, but secretly I want it to be true.

I feel exactly the same way. I think the real one will have me feeling let down after this.

This picture was found on a bigfooty(??) forum. The link to the actual forum was sent to my iphone by a mate. Looks like they talk a bit about football there too. The guy who posted it says a guy from the club sent it to him.

This. I actually really like that logo and flag. The cartoon bat needs to go, and I think the Jersey needs a bit of work, but the actual logo itself, I love.

That's really impressive, I was all for the Melbourne Heart name......but if Sporting Melbourne picked that logo and strip I'd be well pleased. Whoever set that all up has spent a hell of a lot of time doing it, shame for it all to go to waste.

The application was accepted for advertisement on December 23rd. At that point they could have announced it because the deal is as good as done - however, the FFA won't let them announce it until the logo mark has been filed.

For the record - applications can not be "hidden", the trade marks database is in the public domain. As of this morning there is STILL no application for the logo. I suspect this is for one of two reasons, either:

The FFA have decided when they want to make the announcement, and know that as soon as they lodge the application it will be planted up on the 442 forum (as with the SYDNEY ROVERS marks); or

Bonita walking out on them has the publicity department in complete disarray, they don't know when to make the announcement, or who should make it, or how to file a trade mark, or... Oh God, it's all falling apart...

Ben, Whats the update that was made on the 14th of Jan to the Heart TM?

Scott Munn mentioned last week that all would be revealed in "10 days time" - probably waiting to lodge before that.

Edited by forbze: 25/1/2010 10:18:59 AM

When the naming contest was on I mentioned during one of Michael Lynch's forums that I thought the nickname of 'The Bloods' would work well and that they should adopt a logo not dissimilar to Valencia but with red/white verticals (wearing a R&W vertical strip). This is very close to what I had pictured in my thoughts.

Agree - gotta lose the cartoon bat but the rest is great.

Will make for a great spectacle the R&W v the blue of Victory... SMFC carries the same initials as South Melbourne - if Sporting Melbourne (which I too voted for) becomes the name I wonder if that could be a deliberate attempt to win over some good old Hellas fans. It would be great to have the passion of that kind of club in the Red and White corner! I know you can't buy history but (like Fremantle in the AFL) the have borrowed a lot of their support from the South Fremantle Football Club - while I'd hate to end up with a pitiful start to our club, as Fremantle did in the AFL, if South's were to lend their voice to our new club we'd be unstoppable!

South Melbourne - what do we need to do to get your voice and your support???

I'm so excited for the new team and rivalry at 'The Tangle' that I wish I could fast forward time.

Van 't Schip is back from Europe apparently.

http://melbourneheartsyn.com/default.aspx?s=aleague_newsdisplay&id=32178

Do you think he minds his club doesn't have a name?

The mark was accepted for registration on 23rd December, but still had to be advertised. Marks are advertised in the Trade Marks Journal every other week - this one was scheduled to be advertised on 14th.

As of the advertisement, anyone who believes they have just cause to oppose the registration of the mark has three months to oppose. It's unlikely that anyone will have valid grounds though as they have a co-existence agreement in place with the owners of the only similar trade marks.

The only reason to delay filing the new application once the acceptance has been obtained (ie 23/12/09) is to time the application to coincide with a press release. As it is, the FFA know that as soon as the mark hits the ATMOSS database, I'll have it up here.

There are a couple of 'cheats' they could pull to try and avoid being spotted.

a) They could file the application in a name other than their own, then assign the mark to themselves later on. This would work if anyone was searching for applications by the Football Federation, but not if anyone was searching by class (as I do)

b) They could accidentally-on-purpose file the application in the wrong class(es), then transfer the various goods into the correct classes after the examiner has pointed out their 'error'

c) They could file the application overseas, then file an Aussie application within 6 months claiming convention priority based on that overseas application... Big businesses do this sometimes when they have a major product launch that they want to keep quiet - but I don't think the FFA would do it.

Nah, he will know the club's identity, he will be more concerned with things like player recruitment at the moment.

The announcement has been put back till after the Australian Open. Patience is a virtue and hopefully the identity will be worth the wait.

Whether it is now or next week is of little difference in my opinion. The hold up till this point was the FFA being, well, the FFA. Now the Heart Syndicate feel it's best to have the news focused on them after the Australian Open, fair enough.

After seeing that Sporting Melbourne "The Bats" picture, I only hope the real thing is as good, or better. Or I hope that it is the Sporting Melbourne picture we have seen. It is really incredible.

Quite often in the graphic design industry a client will give a brief, and then ask for multiple suggestions to view - i.e. show me 3-4 logo designs and I'll make a decision which is best.

Whilst they can't show us the legit one, I'm sure there's no problems accidentally leaking one of the ditched options to keep ppl interested... ;)

So would you assume the name would be Sporting Melbourne or would they have other logo designs with different names?

Would this be in line with what they are going to do as in colours and the like?

Does anyone think the clubmay have "accidently leaked" these images to see the response of the public?
I for one love the designs.

If it was Sporting Melbourne I would suspect that they would have requested expedited examination of the trade mark application by now (which they haven't). It would appear extremely unlikely that they would announce a name without having secured the intellectual property rights first... And they've been warned off using the initials SMFC, by South Melbourne FC, who have extensive prior use of those initials in relation to football and merchandise.

South Melbourne have the audacity to do that?

No disrespect to all the South Melbourne fans out there but what the hell?

Getting pretty tired of every A-League decision being made having a club like South Melbourne who have as much and as little influence as everyone else putting there nose in it.

SMFC in the A-League.

SMFC in the VPL.

Separate leagues, separate clubs what is the problem?

Warned them? Please.

They might have made up several options with different color schemes, names etc. they might have gone to a designer with the two best (heart / sporting) and said - show me what you can do with both.

Realistically - I don't know... seems very far fetched theory, but that graphic is pretty polished tho.

I'm not a heart fan but I cannot wait for the announcement of the name. :cool:

In pure intellectual property terms South Melbourne have every right to oppose the use of letters commonly associated with them - and would most likely win if they challenged the use of the initials.

The FFA wouldn't allow, and nor should they, a state league side, or a rugby team (for example), to start up calling themselves MELBOURNE VICTORS or VICTORY OF MELBOURNE.

This is the very nature of trade mark protection.

It is only initials. It is not the name. The name differs greatly. Your examples are of names, not initials.

There would be a huge amount of clubs that share the same initials out there. It would seem South Melbourne would be the only organisation that would get their knickers in a twist over this.

I also see this as South Melbourne acting as if they are the chronicle of football in this country, again. It is quite remarkable.

Sporting Melbourne FC - red and white, "The Bats", The A-League.
South Melbourne FC - blue and white, "The Hellas", the VPL.

I don't know, I think the argument that Sporting Melbourne was trying to "rip off" South Melbourne's identity would get laughed off in court.

SMFC is just a coincidence. I'm positive the Melbourne Heart consortium wouldn't have even thought of South Melbourne in their process, as much as South Melbourne would like to think they would have.

Does South Melbourne have an issue with the Sydney Swans wearing SMFC on their tops, like they do?

For the love of the game, can South Melbourne quit getting involved in every tidbit the A-League does. Please.

Thanks mate.

I think you'll find that what Ben is saying is the truth - It's like McDonalds Suing people for using Mc in their name in the food industry, Apple suing Woolworths for using an Apple in their logo etc.

Additionally - South Melbourne Hellas Soccer Club Limited have a trademark on the WORD - SMFC for the following categorys:
- Class: 41 Sports club services