Website and social media takedowns are nothing new in the world of Formula One. Even the drivers have faced such incidents, like when Romain Grosjean was forced to remove some video footage from his social media accounts from pre-season testing. In situations like these, many are wondering: Has the Formula One Management gone too far?
The Formula One Management, better known as FOM, is a company in the Formula One Group and is owned primarily by CVC Capital Partners, some other investment companies and Bernie Ecclestone. The company owns the commercial rights to Formula One and that means that they own the copyright for all Formula One footage, both video and image, even if it wasn’t recorded by FOM.
FOM has been notorious for attacking companies and social media accounts that either use one of the many FOM trademarks in their brand name or distribute material that infringes on FOM’s copyrights. Even websites that provide news coverage of the sport are not allowed to use the Formula One logo. Tons of social media accounts and groups have also become the victims of FOM takedowns because of the illegal FOM content that they publish.
But has FOM went a little overboard with their constant battle against illegal Formula One content?
In most situations, I think that FOM’s actions are reasonable. When it comes to branding a company using a FOM trademark, FOM is 100% justified in requesting the company name to be changed. The bottom line is that when you add a FOM trademark to your company name, you are trying to sponge off of Formula One’s high reputation to improve business. Since most companies generate some form of an income, it is completely reasonable for FOM to want to stop a company from making money off of a brand that they have worked so hard to protect. The same goes for a company that illegally distribute media or broadcasts that are owned by FOM.
What FOM does to companies that violate their intellectual property is no different than any other company like PepsiCo would do if you used their Pepsi brand name in your own company name. Social media is a different situation though.
Social media accounts are generally not profitable for the majority of users and the people that run these accounts are the people that attract new fans to the sport of Formula One. In a case where a social media account makes a sizable income, then perhaps FOM should take some action. In most cases, where the user that runs the account is just looking to spread their joy of Formula One to others, then maybe FOM should just let it go. It doesn’t seem economical for FOM to waste resources on a legal team dedicated to removing non-profitable social media accounts that actually help publicize the sport.
In the end, a brand as popular as Formula One will always have issues with other people and companies using their property. FOM needs to find the balance between protecting their brand and launching senseless attacks against people with good intentions. Whenever a company violates FOM’s legal guidelines, then they have brought it on themselves, since FOM provides more than enough clear guidelines on how you can and cannot use their trademarks. So although FOM may seem a bit over the top at some points, perhaps they aren’t 100% unreasonable.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
