Rugby pays up to keep good name

The New Zealand Rugby Union has been forced into a confidential settlement with an entrepreneurial Dunedin family who got in first to secure the rights for the brand name "Super 14".

In 2001 the McCarrigans secured the trademarks Super 13 through to Super 20 in anticipation of the expansion of the Super 12 competition.

It is not the first time the family has beaten the rugby union to the punch. In 1998 they secured the trademark for the Black Ferns name and after a three-year dispute with the union,, reached a confidential settlement which allowed the national women's rugby side to use the name.

And in 2000, NZ Cricket found themselves in a similar position, but in this case the McCarrigans gifted them the use of the name White Ferns for the national women's cricket side.

The NZRU was not commenting last week on the deal over the rights to the name Super 14, but the family said the payout "wasn't much" considering what was in the rugby union's coffers.

The family holds the rights to the names Fernz and Rovers Return, but abandoned a bid to trademark Otago of New Zealand before registration was complete.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY