(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)
Mercedes AMG F1 Team's Nico Rosberg has been forced to alter a commemorative helmet that the German will wear for this weekend's German Grand Prix. The helmet featured the world cup trophy and the German flag to celebrate Germany's World Cup win. However Football's world governing body FIFA objected as the image of the trophy was a breach of 'intellectual property rights'.
Germany first the world cup in 1954 and since then have won the main prize in world football in 1974, 1990 and again this year.
Rosberg who heads to his home Grand Prix this weekend with a four point advantage over main title rival team mate Lewis Hamilton who won the last race, the British Grand Prix in Silverstone two weeks ago. In a statement FIFA said they:
'obliged to take action against any unauthorised reproduction of its intellectual property in a commercial context, We cannot allow a commercially branded helmet to feature the trophy as this would jeopardise the rights of our commercial affiliates.'.
FIFA went on to say:
'We appreciate Nico Rosberg's desire to congratulate the German team and have therefore been in discussions with the Rosberg team to attempt to find a solution, whereby he is still able to show his support for Germany without using Fifa intellectual property in a commercial context.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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