Three South African calendar manufacturers say they will fight Fifa in court over the soccer body's claim that it has trademark rights to the date "2010".

The dispute, which has been simmering since the beginning of the year, came to a head last week when Fifa's marketing arm issued the businesses with lawyers' letters demanding a total of R2.7 million in royalties.

Fifa maintains that use of the date for commercial purposes, such as in calendars, is a breach of the special legislation approved last year to protect its branding ahead of the world cup.

However managing director of Cape Town publishing firm Paragon, Goolam Allie, said on Thursday that the claim was "spurious".

"They are definitely chancing their arm," he said. "We have spoken to our lawyers, and we will fight them all the way."

He said Paragon was one of three firms he knew of that had received the lawyers' letters, and the other two, both in Johannesburg, had also vowed to contest the claim.

Paragon had in the runup to 2010 printed close to 85, 000 desk and wall calendars, all bearing the 2010 date.

"What does Fifa want us to put there instead?" he asked. "Or are they saying we must give the calendars away for free?"

Patent attorney Richard Track said a date was regarded as "common goods" when it came to intellectual property, and as such could never enjoy copyright protection.

Only when it was linked to an event in a phrase such as "2010 soccer world cup" did it become a trademark.

Fifa's South African spokeswoman Delia Hunter said in response that the body was committed to freedom of expression, but that it had to protect its commercial rights.

"We are obliged to act in the interests of our licencees, who have paid substantial amounts of money to share in the branding around the cup," she said.

The move against the calendar manufacturers follows a similar Fifa letter two weeks ago to Kulula.com over an ad in which the low-cost airline called itself the "unofficial national carrier of the you-know-what", with stylised pictures of a soccer stadium and vuvuzelas.

Kulula has discontinued the campaign.

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