The Guardian:
A Chinese entrepreneur has registered the image of Zinedine Zidane’s notorious headbutt as a trademark for beer and hats under the name Tietougong (Iron Head Kung Fu). Zhao Xiaokai, the general manager of a sports publicity company, says he’s in negotiations to sell the black & white logo to brewers and clothing companies.
The trademark is a silhouette of the point of impact between the French midfielder and Italian defender Marco Materazzi. ‘As soon as I saw the headbutt, I could feel the commercial opportunities,’ said Zhao, whose company is called Flying to Infinity Sports Culture Diffusion. ‘This was the talking point of the World Cup seen by billions of people.’
Mr Zhao spent 3 days with designers on the image, which is in silhouette so that he’ll not be accused of infringing the portrait rights of the players or the national teams. After registering the trademark for beer, hats, shoes and clothes at a cost of 2,000 yuan (£150), Zhao put the logo up for auction online for 1m yuan.
He’s not the 1st to try to cash in on the headbutt. A song about the incident hit the top of the charts in France, prompting some to question the morality of commercialising a violent foul that earned Zidane a red card and a lengthy ban. ‘I know it’s illegal and violent, but the headbutt was also a positive thing,’ said Mr Zhao. ‘It’ll make people remember the World Cup, it was a popular action in France - and even in China, many fans think it was justified after Materazzi insulted his mother and sister.’ But he said he would not try to register the trademark in Italy. ‘That would look too wicked,’ he said.
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