In anticipation of the upcoming world soccer championships this summer, FIFA, the World Football Association, has warned betting companies it would act against any breach of its trademark rights.

The world championships will be the biggest sporting event in 2006 and many online bookmakers are already advertising for it. It is estimated by some that the global betting on this event will be around 2 billion US$.

According a report in iGaming News, FIFA has approached a number of online betting websites already and they have all made the necessary changes in order to comply with the sporting body's Trademark Guidelines.

At the end of last year, FIFA already won a legal case against a food company using the denominations "Deutschland 2006" and “WM2006” in its marketing and labelling. In addition, a betting website was condemned for using the domain name www.wm2006.com.

FIFA has an operational unit to further monitor the Internet, television and other media for abuse of its IP rights.