Sport Accord recognition

[Knownothing]

What is sport accord and what does being a member of it mean for the sport?

How long before "world rugby" unilaterally declares ownership of rugby league?.

Never.



World Rugby has pretty good grounds for claiming ownership of the name "rugby", and the IP that attaches, no matter how painful that is.


For all the outrage, the name is the issue at stake, and they do have very deep pockets. I am honestly buggered if I know why this is a battle worth wasting time and money fighting?

 

[RL The greatest game]

Never.



World Rugby has pretty good grounds for claiming ownership of the name "rugby", and the IP that attaches, no matter how painful that is.


For all the outrage, the name is the issue at stake, and they do have very deep pockets. I am honestly buggered if I know why this is a battle worth wasting time and money fighting?

By the same token Soccer can claim ownership of the name Football.
Union needs to be very careful as soccer has the money to suck up union and spit it out.

 

[TheInternationalist]

Personally I would go with 'League XIII Football' it can then be Footy, XIII or just League depending on your regional preference.

Keeping the word Rugby is holding our sport back. It keeps us in a war we can't win and if you try to introduce people to Rugby League they are not interested as they think it's Union.

 

[Knownothing]

By the same token Soccer can claim ownership of the name Football.
Union needs to be very careful as soccer has the money to suck up union and spit it out.

Is there any instance of "Soccer" claiming sole ownership of the common word football?



If FIFA was as stupid as that, their sponsors would really spit the dummy. The NFL's pockets and US Law might prevail, don' t you think?

 

[Sydney Knight]

With regards to the naming putt putt golf are on the sports accord list. I dont see the world golfing organisations trying to have them banned

 

[RL The greatest game]

Is there any instance of "Soccer" claiming sole ownership of the common word football?



If FIFA was as stupid as that, their sponsors would really spit the dummy. The NFL's pockets and US Law might prevail, don' t you think?

I was using soccer (Football) as an example.
Has union sole ownership of the word Rugby?

 

[Knownothing]

I was using soccer (Football) as an example.
Has union sole ownership of the word Rugby?

I am not a lawyer, but I am certain that the use of the name "Rugby" is the only point of legal contention.


Of course there are other potential areas of conflict, particularly in less developed markets. People who have put a lot of time and effort into developing a small patch in a difficult environment can hardly be blamed for wanting to protect it against what they see as intruders offering a similar sport which also uses the same defining name.


Providing that they behave in accordance with the Laws of the jurisdiction within which they operate, of course. And if they don't, the international body should step in and support their code.


Either way. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Never.

World Rugby has pretty good grounds for claiming ownership of the name "rugby", and the IP that attaches, no matter how painful that is.

For all the outrage, the name is the issue at stake, and they do have very deep pockets. I am honestly buggered if I know why this is a battle worth wasting time and money fighting?

To me it has always seemed like RL was just having a self-righteous tantrum...

We gain next to nothing from keeping the word, cause an assload of pain for ourselves and any progress RL actually makes is benefits RU, because to 99% of the world "Rugby" and "Rugby" are the same thing. (the fools.....)

The only logical explaination i can think for why RL clings to the word is a childish sense of honour, "we have just as much right to the word as they do, and they should respect that. Wahhhhh"

Personally I would go with 'League XIII Football' it can then be Footy, XIII or just League depending on your regional preference.

Keeping the word Rugby is holding our sport back. It keeps us in a war we can't win and if you try to introduce people to Rugby League they are not interested as they think it's Union.

Im personally in favour of jumping in with Gridiron (its already an umbrella term for half a dozen codes, why not us too)...

For the history nerd, it does make sense: 15 years after Walter Camp proposed rule changes to Rugby in American Colleges, Northern Union introduces the exact same changes. I find it hard to believe that is a coincidence; more likely word of this revolution travelled across the Atlantic and were taken on by the NU clubs.

Gridiron Rugby seems most natural (and i reckon it would be much easier convincing people it is an independent sport instead of another Rugby league [see what id did there , post: -)"]), but if we wanted to get away from Rugby entirely we could do Australian Gridiron or IIIX Gridiron or any of a thousand other choices.

If we are going to ride someones coattails, why not the biggest sport on the planet (it might even be a way to get RL into the American market as a kid friendly variation of AF). And its not like we will be confused with NFL like we are with RU...

 

[miguel de cervantes]

To drop rugby is to wipe out a huge part of the history and culture of the game. To me it is just unacceptable and thank god no one will ever do it.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

To drop rugby is to wipe out a huge part of the history and culture of the game. To me it is just unacceptable and thank god no one will ever do it.

Same arguments could have been made at that meeting in Northern England against forming the Northern Union. Same arguements could have been made in the Bateman's Hotel against forming the NSWRL...

"To separate from the Private School wankers would be disrespectful to our games history!!!!!"

RL has 130 years of history behind it, but we cannot let go of this one piece of history associating us with a f*cking private school in South England. Why do we relegate ourselves to Unions shadow because we cant come up with some other word to brand the game.

Im not even suggesting ditching "Rugby". Just put something in front of it so people know its different from "Other Rugby".

This is basically a situation where we can choose to be self-righteous and bang our head against the wall complaining about how mean Union is. Or we can be practical and finally move out of Yawnions shadow....

 

[adamkungl]

To drop rugby is to wipe out a huge part of the history and culture of the game. To me it is just unacceptable and thank god no one will ever do it.

I'm with you.

It's only Aussies and Kiwis uptight about differentiating anyway, like someone said early the English call both games Rugby and accept that there are different forms of Rugby.

Rugby League is Rugby. This is a fact.

 

[flamin]

I'm with you.

It's only Aussies and Kiwis uptight about differentiating anyway, like someone said early the English call both games Rugby and accept that there are different forms of Rugby.

Rugby League is Rugby. This is a fact.

Once you've been to any country where they don't know rugby league exists you'll realise the issue. Heck you only need to travel to Adelaide!

No one is denying our history that rugby league is a type of rugby. Rugby league is also a type of football. That is also a fact. But that hasn't made dropping "football" out of "rugby league football" unacceptable.
When the only way to distinguish our game is with a word that is generally used to describe a group of teams in a competition, you're going to encounter difficulties.

 

[yakstorm]

I can understand the hesitation people would have dropping the word 'Rugby'' from Rugby League in any market that the sport has already established itself and has a healthy level of recognition (Australia, England, Wales, Serbia, NZ, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, etc.)

Such a move would not only be seen as removing part of our history, but also be bad from a branding perspective.

That said from markets that don't know of Rugby at all or think that there is only one code, it would be great if like Association Football we had an alternate name to use. What such a name could be I don't know but it would help the sport to grow more easily without it being seen as just a version of Union.

 

[BODISGOD]

I'm with you.

It's only Aussies and Kiwis uptight about differentiating anyway, like someone said early the English call both games Rugby and accept that there are different forms of Rugby.

Rugby League is Rugby. This is a fact.

Outside of Internet forums not really, it's called footy or league.

It's England where it's an issue- see the anger over the BBC having a Twitter account for rugby union called @BBCRugby

 

[BODISGOD]

I was using soccer (Football) as an example.
Has union sole ownership of the word Rugby?

No they don't, nobody does

http://www.rugbytoday.com/rugby-news-around-america/perseverance-sees-rugby-company-win-legal-battle-polo-ralph-lauren

 

[miguel de cervantes]

(i) it is evident that WorldRugby does not like the word rugby being associated with rugby league. This is a clear as day indication that league should hold onto it and not give it up.

(ii) With the inclusion of rugby 7s in the olympics, people are going to wake up to the fact now more than ever that there are different rugbies. You will see more rugby 15s in the media, more frequent cases of the word "rugby" simply not being enough to know what one is talking about.

(iii) It goes both ways. Rugby league could, and should perhaps, and maybe even does advertise games as just "rugby" in developing markets. Having the word rugby in the name of the sport can be viewed as a positive thing.

(iv) "To separate from the Private School wankers would be disrespectful to our games history!!!!!" - never in my life have I thought of the word rugby in rugby league as being a link to private school wankers, or the establishment or whatever. It is just simply the name of the sport.

(v) French rugby league fought long and hard to regain the use of the word rugby. Losing this right in the first place did diddly squat to help the promotion of the sport. And to add to BODISGOD above, it has been ruled in France that union does not and cannot hold exclusive rights to the word rugby.

 

[BODISGOD]

It is commercial suicide to try and call the sport rugby sorry. Yes, there is a right to usage as much as rugby but thems the facts. Football is a different animal worldwide due to its popularity but you still won't see FIFA trying to market to sport as football in the US. They were happy enough with soccer.

It's interesting in Australia that the association football branding has moved to "football" in recent years but there's a couple of reasons for that. The huge immigrant populations who want to be like their European ancestors and ape European association football culture being the big one. Not applicable to rugby league at all.

Fair enough wanting to keep the name for historical reasons but the simple fact is that it is business suicide. If it was just a business and not a sport it would have rebranded decades ago.

 

[BODISGOD]

The RLIF should rebrand anyway imo. It's a clunky full name, the initials don't roll off the tongue and isn't even that old. Not saying "rugby" should be dropped but a rebrand is needed.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Never.



World Rugby has pretty good grounds for claiming ownership of the name "rugby", and the IP that attaches, no matter how painful that is.


For all the outrage, the name is the issue at stake, and they do have very deep pockets. I am honestly buggered if I know why this is a battle worth wasting time and money fighting?

If it means that much to them, let them pay the RLIF to change its name and all the history in regards to Rugby with it, come up with our name and put our history to it. How much is it really worth to the IRB and World Union?

 

[Scubby]

The RLIF should rebrand anyway imo. It's a clunky full name, the initials don't roll off the tongue and isn't even that old. Not saying "rugby" should be dropped but a rebrand is needed.

They could rebrand to World Rugby League.