Thor’s Battle
For the first time, Iceland’s national soccer team will be competing in the final stages of the World Cup this year in Russia, prompting cartoonist Hugleikur Dagsson to commemorate the event with a T-shirt of the team’s iconic Viking clap and its battle cry “Hú.”
But Dagsson’s homage to Iceland fans is being hit with the rulebook: “Hú” has already been trademarked, the Iceland Monitor reported.
Back in 2016, a variation of the battle cry, “Húh,” was trademarked by local sports trainer Gunnar Thor Andresson, who argued the print on Dagsson’s T-shirt was too close to the spelling of his trademark, according to the Iceland Review.
Iceland’s trademark office sided with Andresson and ruled that his trademark covered both variations. The authority ordered Dagsson to cease printing his T-shirts or else pay royalties.
Not pleased with this turn of events, Dagsson took the matter to Facebook, arguing that the battle cry of the Icelandic people shouldn’t be owned by a single individual.
And after all, he argued, Andresson’s trademark isn’t even grammatically correct – the Icelandic language never adds the letter “h” to the end of words.
Despite the threats, Dagsson still plans to sell the shirts and donate half the profits to the Icelandic Cancer Society.
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