Melville receives trademark certificate for Soca Warriors name

VETERAN Trinidad and Tobago sports broadcaster Selwyn Melville has received the trademark certificate for the term Soca Warriors, which is the nickname for the TT men's football team.

In 1998, Melville coined the nickname Soca Warriros while covering a TT men's team encounter against El Salvador in the United States. The team were called Soca Warriors during their successful 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, with soca artiste Maximus Dan (now MX Prime) releasing a song called Fighter, which was dedicated to the squad.

Since 2005, Melville has been in a legal battle with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (now TT Football Association) concerning the ownership of the nickname.

On Tuesday, Melville got the certificate for the Soca Warriors term at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in Port of Spain.

According to Melville, "There is no issue again with the matter being settled. We (himself and his legal team) can have conversations with the Football Association to settle this matter. We're not in any fight with anyone, we want to sit at the table and see what could be done."