Cristopher Renzi, who has claimed to hold the "CR7" trademark in the US has filed a lawsuit against Cristiano Ronaldo and his Danish company, JBS Textile Group.
Renzi has said that he received letters from the said company saying that he should just give up the trademark, as he cannot compete with Ronaldo's marketing.
The company also contacted the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the Rhode Island man's trademark, according to some documents from the court.
Renzi wants to own the trademark in the US, and he said that he thought of it first.
"We just want them to leave us alone," said Michael Feldhuhn, Renzi's attorney.
On the other hand, Ronaldo's attorneys have not released a statement yet.
CR7, for Ronaldo, stands for 'Cristiano Ronaldo 7,' his jersey number. For Renzi, it means the initials of his namen, CR, and his birthday, which is October 7.
Ronaldo currently uses CR7 for his underwear line, while Renzi said he has been selling jeans and T-shirts with CR7 logos since 2009. He also has a seven- minute fitness workout website advertisement under the said name.
According the the court, JBS hold "exclusive, worldwide license" for Ronaldo's CR7 underwear line. The bigger company also suggested that Renzi intentionally wanted to use the CR7 trademark to make use of Ronaldo's fame.
CR7 was "so closely tied to the fame and reputation of Cristiano Ronaldo, that a connection with the soccer player would immediately be presumed by the general public when encountering" Renzi's branded clothes, said JBS' filing with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
However, Feldhuhn said, "but it's really based on who's using it first. We can show we were the first use of the CR7 name in commerce in America. They don't really have the trademark rights because they haven't used it."
Ronaldo currently earns around £14.1 million per year, with sponsors such as Nike, Tag Heuer, and Pro Evolution Soccer video games. He currently has 93 million Facebook likes on his fan page, and 28 million followers in Twitter.
With reports from: nypost.com
