Readers may recall that some time ago, French football club Paris Saint-Germain lodged an complaint for infringement of copyright and advertising free-riding against the sports betting websites Unibet and Bwin.

The Paris County Court has just decided that the use of the brand by sports betting websites does not constitute an copyright infringement or an act of advertising free-riding. The PSG’s claims have thus been rejected.

This comes as a major blow to PSG soon after its legal victory that saw it reinstated to the French League Cup competition. But rather than just being a failure for the Parisian club, this case also represents a setback on the legal level in general. Indeed, this is the third consecutive judgement concerning this type of complaint.

It should be remembered that some time ago, the same court had found the same online betting websites guilty for their use of the “Roland Garros” brand. The French Federation of Tennis had obtained a ban on the two bookmakers offering bets on the French International tennis tournament.

In February, it was Unibet and William Hill’s turn to be found guilty against Juventus of Turin. At the time, the County Court had declared that the companies had used the Juventus brand for advertising purposes with a view to promoting their sports betting activities.

But in its latest ruling, the court has delivered a contradictory verdict, considering that “the name of the Paris Saint Germain Football Club, when used for the purpose of publicising matches and offering bets, cannot be avoided by paraphrasing and thus requires the use of the club’s name”. This is the first time that such a judgement has been favourable to online betting websites and it casts doubts on the verdicts of the FFT and Juventus cases.

The questions concerning trademark rights are a long way from being resolved.