The Premier League and Uefa are seeking legal advice on the usage of photographs of their trophies in non-fungible token (NFT) digital assets promoted by John Terry and other English football stars. Terry’s posts are being investigated by Chelsea since some of them contain photographs of the club’s logo.
Terry has promoted the NFTs in question, which are drawings of infant apes, on his Twitter account. Terry posted several of the photographs, which include Premier League, Europa League, and Champions League trophies, and were retweeted by his former Chelsea teammate Ashley Cole in one case.
The posts have piqued the league’s interest, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph. The league’s trophy is trademarked, and any commercial use of it requires a licencing deal with the league.
“Uefa takes the protection of its intellectual property rights seriously and we are examining this case further,” stated Uefa, which organises the Europa League and Champions League.
The Football Association is also aware of Terry’s account’s NFT activity, which includes the usage of the FA Cup trophy, the Community Shield, and England’s uniform.
Terry, who has joined Chelsea’s academy as a consultant, has been extensively promoting the “Ape Kids Club” NFTs on Twitter. Bobby Zamora, Jack Wilshere, and Nigel de Jong are among others who have endorsed them. Reece James, a Chelsea and England fullback, has tweeted about obtaining a “Mutant Ape” NFT.
“Ape Kids Club” is a club for children who are apes. The “Bored Ape Yacht Club,” another popular NFT, has spawned NFTS. A total of 10,000 digital drawings of cartoon apes are included in the collection. There are 9,999 various ape NFTs available for purchase in the “Ape Kids Club.”
Cole is not believed to have signed a deal with the developers of “Ape Kids Club,” and has simply retweeted an image of an NFT with an illustrated image of the Premier League trophy.
NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital assets that are maintained on the Blockchain and exchanged for cryptocurrency. The Blockchain, an online ledger, verifies the ownership and provenance of NFTs. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two most popular cryptocurrencies, but there are over 5,000 more.
The tokens, according to critics, are potentially risky financial investments. NFTs continue to operate in an uncontrolled financial environment.