A star and the initials of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). These are the references that the Spanish fashion brand Grimey (GRMY, per its logo) has incorporated into one of the soccer jerseys in its catalog. The garment is on sale for about 75 euros on its Spanish website (approximately 1,530 pesos) and for around 2,300 pesos on its Mexican site—the country of origin of the indigenous movement.
The design’s name appears somewhat generic in search results: “Machetazos Boxy Red Soccer Jersey.” Sources close to the EZLN leadership assure that the Spanish company has not contacted them, nor is there any financial arrangement regarding the references to the movement. GRMY’s management, for its part, states that this is simply “another design featuring an allusion to a movement”—a common practice for the brand.
Zapatismo raised its voice—and its weapons—against the Mexican government on January 1, 1994. In those days, thousands of indigenous combatants seized five municipalities in Chiapas, in southeastern Mexico, to call for an insurgency and to demand rights that had historically been denied: “Work, land, housing, food, health, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice, and peace.” Their symbols were unmistakable: a red star and the initials of the movement, EZLN. These are the very same symbols—with the exception of the star’s color—that the Spanish brand has now transferred onto a soccer jersey (one that does not represent any specific team) 32 years later.
As it is a social movement, the EZLN does not qualify as a registered trademark in the conventional sense; however, intellectual property attorney Pablo Carrillo explains that, in Mexico, the use of a specific brand or symbology “confers rights.” “If we acknowledge that the acronym ‘EZLN’ has been in use as a movement since 1994, it evidently has a prior history of usage. That prior use would enable them to initiate [legal] action,” explains a partner at the law firm Caype Abogados.
Carrillo notes that if GRMY were using the logo solely within Spain, the movement could rely on the notoriety of the acronym to demand that they cease using it. However, given that it is being used in Mexico, “there is undoubtedly a very clear case of unfair competition stemming from the use or appropriation of the acronym that represents the movement.” “I believe it is, rather, a case involving bad faith,” he concludes.
