The Chicago Cubs organization finally has won the right to use its trademark logo in Japan.

Last September, the Japan Patent Office ruled that the Cubs could not register the trademark because it was “not familiar in Japan,” and because they feared people would be confused into thinking it was the trademark of UBS AG, a Swiss financial group. This was despite the facts that UBS AG does not have a logo that looks anything like the Chicago Cubs logo and that UBS AG did not file any objection against the baseball team registering their logo in Japan. In other words, the whole problem was nothing but a figment of the imagination of some bureaucrat flexing his muscles.

Confusing?

The matter was finally settled when the Intellectual Property High Court ruled that, “people would normally recognize (the trademark) as that of Cubs.”

The court’s ruling was based on the logic that the Cubs are well known in Japan thanks to Sammy Sosa’s playing with the club, and the fact that the Cubs are in the National League Central Division as are the St. Louis Cardinals for whom So Taguchi plays.