The largest German sporting league, the Deutsche Fußball Liga, has filed a number of trademarks pertaining to an expansion into the brave world of digital sports.
Will any of these great PC multiplayer games make it into the big leagues?
According to German lawyerMichael Scheyhing, the DFL football association has applied for several marks in the European Patent and Trademark Office for eSports-related branding.
Among them:”DFL Esport Bundesliga”, “DFL Virtuelle Bundesliga”, “eBundesliga”, and the even more tragically noughties “iBundesliga”.
Teams in the Bundesliga are no strangers to their virtual counterparts, as VfL Wolfsburg already has two FIFA players on their permanent roster and FC Schalke 04 has previously fielded a League of Legends team, though the former Elements team failed to qualify in the Spring EU LCS promotions.
Scheyhing, however, feels even though the football association is the originator of the Bundesliga term, it could be difficult to defend given its now-ubiquitous use outside of its owner’s control. For instance, Sky’s use of the word in channels devoted to the German league could prevent the similar process of sticking a prefix such as “e” or “i” on the front and calling it a day.
Whether the league will be focused solely on replicating its predecessor’s sport on a virtual field with FIFA tournaments, or branching out into the wider array of competitive titles, is also up for speculation.