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SCMP Reporter

MICHAEL OWEN is facing a battle to protect what is after his prodigious football talent his most precious asset.

The day after the World Cup final an opportunist with an eye on Owen's fantastic marketing potential applied to register the striker's name as a trademark.

The Patent Office has yet to examine an application by Michael Ellis, of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on July 13 to exploit the footballer's public image to sell shoes, leisure wear and clothing.

If an examiner accepts the applicant's case, Owen's name will be published in the Trademarks Journal, forcing the player to object or risk losing control of a trade in Owen shirts and boots potentially worth millions of pounds.

The blow comes as sources close to Owen say that he is expected to sign two or three new contracts in the coming year, doubling his portfolio of commercial deals.

Owen, 18, is believed to be the youngest person whose name has been lodged at the Patent Office for registration as a trademark. Even if the application fails, it is expected that, before he is 20, he will be referred to as Michael Owen (followed by a small letter R in a circle).

He would be joining an elite group of footballers including Alan Shearer, Ryan Giggs and the retired Manchester United star Eric Cantona whose names are so valuable that they are classified as intellectual property. David Seaman, the England goalkeeper, has had 'Safe Hands' accepted by the Patent Office as his trademark.

Helen Hollier, at Tony Stephens Associates, Owen's agents, said: 'Obviously other players have their names registered as trademarks. It would be something that Michael would do.' Opportunists often register trademarks that are likely to become valuable so that they can sell them to the perceived rightful owner. Ted Blake, of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, said: 'People go on holiday and think, 'That's a good product, I'll register it as a trademark and if they come here they will have to buy it off me for millions of pounds'.' Timing is everything. The family of Diana, Princess of Wales, were beaten in their attempts to turn her into a trademark by people who, within hours of her death, were applying for the rights to her name and sobriquets such as 'The People's Princess'.

Owen made such an impressive start to his international career in the World Cup that Joao Havelange, former president of football's governing body FIFA, has made an unprecedented request to England for a replica of the striker's No 20 shirt.

 Within a year he is predicted to enter the world's top five earners in football, making between ?8 million and ?10 million and overtaking Shearer, as well as David Beckham.

The present highest earners are all Brazilians. Luiz Nazario de Lima, otherwise known as Ronaldo, leads the field with an annual ?20.5 million, followed by Denilson de Oliveira, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos, according to Business Age magazine.

Their enormous earnings from transfer fees and club salaries are often matched by the amounts they get from sponsorship and promotion of products including sportswear and computer games. Owen has only two commercial contracts: a six-year deal with Umbro sportswear worth ?5 million, and one with Tissot Watches of Switzerland for an estimated ?100,000 a year. Both were signed before the World Cup where Owen shot to international prominence with stirring displays against Tunisia, Romania, Col-ombia and Argentina, capping his display with a wonder goal in the second round.

Now Owen's agents are looking at a commercial giant with the capacity to sell almost every type of commodity throughout the world in dozens of languages.

He has already turned down a reported ?30 million in sponsorship deals in the month since France 98, but will probably sign a further two or three contracts with blue-chip companies during the early part of the Premier League season.

 Under his commercial agreements, Owen cannot promote either a sportswear firm or a watch company until the present deals expire but that still leaves an ocean of opportunities for the youngster.

 If he follows the lead of sports stars such as Gary Lineker, David Ginola and the boxer Prince Naseem, who all have lucrative contracts to endorse products from crisps to shampoo, he will become exceedingly rich.

The conditions for accepting a deal are that the products must be non-conflicting, so he would be unlikely to promote rival brands of soft drinks, and that they must use his image more than his a multitude of personal appearances.

Owen's associates say that he wants to stay focused on his football .

Since the World Cup finals, he has started a weekly column for the News of the World newspaper rumoured to be worth ?120,000 a year.

 The column gives the 18-year-old's views on the game and his feelings over the major issues which have occurred in the previous week. The column is ghost written by an experienced journalist.

He has also taken delivery of a Jaguar XK8 convertible worth ?55,000. Shearer and Beckham, also on the books of Tony Stephens Associates, have the same model.

 The value of this kind of deal to a motor manufacturer is shown by the Daily Star, which devoted its front page and two inside pages to pictures of Beckham parking his new car.

Business Age estimates that Beckham earned ?8.1 million last year and Shearer ?7.75 million.

But since sponsorship deals typically include a large signing-on fee, both players' incomes are expected to decline in the coming year, after the advertising frenzy that preceded the World Cup returns to the accepted commercial level.

Tony Stephens Associates' greatest coup has been to get Umbro to pay ?25 million for a 14-year deal ending when Shearer is 42 and, presumably, retired.

Now the stage is set for Owen to take over from Shearer.



SHARES SOAR IN OWEN