AFL is not the only football: a legal determination

This is paragraph 35 from a recent case in which Croc Media attempted to prevent Football Nation Radio from using the word football in its name

35. In the SGP the Opponent stated that AFL ‘is an acronym strongly associated with football in Australia’. There are a number of codes of football played in Australia, including, association football (soccer), rugby league, rugby union, Gaelic football, American football and Australian rules football. AFL is strongly associated only with the last of those codes. Indeed, it appears that the code itself is sometimes referred to as AFL. For example, the question, ‘What is your favourite code of football?’, may well elicit the response ‘AFL’. It may be that AFL as a sign has to a greater or lesser extent become the name of a thing—in this case a code of football—in the same manner as many trade marks before it: such as a Hoover, Yo-Yo and Jeans. It is unnecessary this possibility be considered further here. Nevertheless, in my view, the term ‘football’ is not equivalent to AFL.