PNG Chiefs plan October launch as New Zealand Rugby seeks court injunction over name

The PNG Chiefs said on 8 October that they plan to launch their team identity on 21 October despite New Zealand Rugby filing High Court proceedings to stop the incoming NRL club from using the ‘Chiefs’ name in New Zealand. The dispute puts the name of Papua New Guinea’s planned 2028 NRL entrant in question before its public brand launch, although neither report establishes that a court has granted an injunction or that the team has changed its name.

New Zealand Rugby is seeking interim and final injunctions covering ‘PNG Chiefs’, ‘Chiefs’ and similar names in New Zealand, RNZ Pacific reported. The territorial scope matters: the court bid described by the reports concerns use of the name in New Zealand. It does not, by itself, establish what the club may call itself in Papua New Guinea or Australia.

PNG Chiefs say the 21 October brand launch remains on course

PNG Chiefs chief executive Lorna McPherson told PNG’s TVWAN that the NRL legal department and the Australian Rugby League Commission were handling the dispute. ‘We are launching the identity and brand on 21 October as the PNG Chiefs,’ she said, according to RNZ Pacific. She said that was as much as she could say about the legal issue.

The Australian Rugby League Commission’s executive chairman, Peter V’landys, said the league would defend the action vigorously. He called New Zealand Rugby’s move ‘hypocrisy’, pointing to the New South Wales Blues rugby league name and the later Auckland Blues Super Rugby franchise. That comparison is his argument in the dispute; the reports do not describe a court ruling on whether the names are legally comparable.

Why New Zealand Rugby wants to protect the Chiefs name

New Zealand Rugby says it brought the case to protect the Waikato-based Super Rugby Chiefs, whose identity has been built over 30 years. Its chief executive, Steve Lancaster, told ABC News that the organisation had raised concerns with the Australian Rugby League Commission over the preceding year and believed it had a responsibility to protect the brand. The Chiefs have played in Super Rugby since 1996.

Chiefs chief executive Simon Graafhuis told RNZ Pacific that the club’s identity also has cultural meaning and ties to the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. He said the club was open to working with the NRL toward a solution and that its objection was not to rugby league or to the development of a PNG team. The point at issue, he said, was protection of a brand in which the club had invested.

Graafhuis said the Chiefs had tried to discuss the name with the league and its commission without resolving the matter. He also said that having two clubs use the name was not an option his club had considered. According to his account, the Super Rugby team’s brand had been registered and trademarked in New Zealand since 1998. Those are his statements about the club’s position and rights, not findings made by the High Court.

In comments to ABC News, Graafhuis said a substantially different colour scheme would not satisfy the club’s concern about use of the name and trademark. That makes the disagreement broader than a possible clash between visual designs: the Super Rugby club is objecting to the name itself. Whether the parties can agree on its use remains unresolved.

What remains unresolved before the launch

ABC News reported a separate Australian trademark development: IP Australia had given the PNG Chiefs’ application initial acceptance, opening a two-month opposition period. Initial acceptance is a step in that application process, not a resolution of the New Zealand court dispute. The reports do not establish the outcome of any opposition in Australia.

The immediate question is whether the New Zealand High Court grants interim relief before the planned 21 October launch, or whether the organisations reach an agreement. Neither RNZ Pacific nor ABC News reported a hearing date or a court order. For now, the PNG club says it will proceed under the Chiefs name, while New Zealand Rugby is asking the court to restrict that name’s use in New Zealand.