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Written by : Thanh Berentson |
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the NFL has quickly become the most popular sport in the United States and along with that is one of the biggest money-making machines in the world consider the fact that all 32 NFL franchises made the most recent top 50 list for the most valuable sports teams not only that but 14 and the individual owners are on the Forbes 400 list not too bad not too bad at all NFL gets its revenue from three primary sources NFL enterprises want the NFL Network and Sunday Ticket the league's massive television contract which paid each franchise two and fifty five million dollars in 2018 and last but not least NFL ventures or merchandising while most NFL teams financial statements are kept secret the Kansas City Star actually obtained the Kansas City Chiefs tax returns for 2008 to 2010 in the most recent return available from 2010 the Chiefs second biggest revenue stream was from merchandising betting the organization fifty five point three million dollars that is more than any other single revenue stream besides the league's television contract which is league negotiated and then evenly distributed amongst the franchise's considering that the franchise had approximately thirty eight million dollars in operating income maximizing the merchandising revenue is crucial for NFL teams if they want to turn a profit and reinvest into the team the immense value that these NFL licenses hold has resulted in a number of strongly worded letters cease and desist and if necessary lawsuits against vendors trying to illegally sell gear that features NFL intellectual properties this is not only a problem for the NFL but also its authorized vendors who lose out when consumers buy knockoff gear New Era's bill Adams vice-president of US sales said that the counterfeiting problem is costing his company Millions quote we have people in China doing enforcement for us certainly we all appreciate any help from the league's on this but no one protects your brand as well as you will yourself end quote needless to say the NFL means business when it comes to protecting its intellectual properties which makes it all the more strange that so many high schools seem to adopt NFL logos some will modify a few things like the colors or flip the logo backwards but the resemblance is clear and some don't even bother changing it at all yet for some reason it seems like the NFL just lets these team skate on using its trademarked logos this is a stark contrast to the NFL's position around its superb owl trademark a moniker Steve Colbert used to reference the game and avoid a lawsuit during a skid back in 2014 thus kitten Lots the hundreds of advertisements that pop up before the Super Bowl all of which refer to it as the big game or something to that effect get ready for the big game sale it's the big game sales event the big game sale the big game this is because the NFL is extremely aggressive about protecting its trademarks which does make sense when you consider companies like anheuser-busch spends over 250 million dollars a year to be the only alcohol company allowed to advertise nationally during the game it would really take the gussto out of the investment if other beer company started promoting their products in association with a Super Bowl via other advertising mediums traditionally the NFL took it so seriously that back in 2007 it even took action against a church yep you heard that right the NFL a multi-billion dollar organization took it upon itself to sue the Fall Creek Baptist Church because the rural in the Anand Church was advertising a quote Super Bowl viewing party unquote which would serve as a fund raiser for the church what exactly were the violations of this supposed trademark policy the church plan to charge admission use the word Super Bowl on the copy for the advertisement and they were going to show the game on a spring bigger than 55 inches action so dastardly it could really be described as the trifecta of deadly sins at least in the NFL's eyes remember this was a church fundraiser the NFL ultimately strong-armed the church into canceling the party and no lawsuit was actually filed against them as it stands today me and a fella softened its stance on the Super Bowl trademark as well not out of a goodness of its heart but because all the lawsuits were costing them money in the long run interestingly it's actually far more common for university athletic programs to take issue with high schools for trademark infringement the n-c-double-a lets the individual colleges decide if they will allow high school or local teams to use their logos and let's just say more than a few have had a problem with it the powers that be at Oregon State Amos Lee sent a cease-and-desist to a small ohio high school who's using a beaver as its logo one that bore far too much resemblance to oregon states for the college's liking similarly McCutcheon high school changed its logo back 2013 when the school received a letter from the University of Texas quote they were making the appointment our longhorn style maverick logo looked confusingly similar to the University of Texas symbol end quote said the school superintendent Scott hand back in a previous interview it seems crazy to me that all of these big schools and corporations get so worked up over these kinds of issues but it happens all the time fortunately there are some schools that seem to be more understanding about these low budget high school athletic departments not wanting to dump thousands of dollars into building a brand approximately 90 miles away from Purdue University resides another school that claims the Boilermaker as their logo Bradley bourbon a high school however instead of having Purdue Pete they have Bruno the Boilermaker leading the way at football games well no one knows exactly who brought the Boilermaker to them the locals believe back in the 1930s the school had a Purdue alum as a coach it was responsible for it Purdue's seemingly embraces it and the owner of a trade Marcus said he'd never take any action against the high school how measured so why do all these organizations care so much about these borderline anonymous high schools using their logos it definitely seems like common sense should dictate that just because a high school uses a green and yellow Patriot it doesn't necessarily mean that the NFL team endorses or is at all associated with the school but such is the world that we live in today and for this reason Cedric to Hue a patent and trademark specialist suggests that the school's quote either get permission or make a change end quote there is one primary school of thought that gets brought up in nearly every one of these conflicts some organizations are concerned that when a non associated party uses their trademark it can cause confusion for the consumers which seems unlikely considering the disparity of scale that a high school and an NFL or college team operates at the concern heightens if the school is selling a good associated with the logo like branded merchandise secondarily some complaint center around the concept that the school's education is a service that may or may not be endorsed b
Thanks for your comment Preston Battino, have a nice day.
- Thanh Berentson, Staff Member
I am Andre Minka the founder and CEO of trademark Factory and in this video I'm gonna show you how trademarks compare to domain names let's start with what's similar both trademarks and domain names help people find you and your business both trademarks and domain names operate on a first-come first-served basis meaning that you can easily check if a certain name is available but also just because it's available today doesn't mean that it won't be taken by someone else tomorrow at which point you're out of luck just because you were the first who thought it might be a good idea to own a name means nothing unless you actually act on it also you can build value around both trademarks and domain names and you can license or even sell them there are also a few differences the trademark you process is much longer and much more complex compared to getting a domain name it takes a few minutes to register a new domain name it takes more than a year to register a trademark anyone can register a domain name you need experience and specialized knowledge to successfully register a trademark you need to renew domain names every year you need to rename trademarks every 10 years in most countries and every 50 years in Canada with domain names if the exact domain name is available you can have it with trademarks even if the exact name is not trademarked you won't be able to get it if there is another previously applied for or registered confusingly similar trademark and of course trademarks are significantly more expensive to get than domain names so there you have it there's a lot of similarities and a lot of differences but what's important is that most businesses need to have both they need to have their brand reflected in domain names and they need to have their brands protected as trademarks this is just one of many short videos where I provide specific no BS answers to your questions about trademarks so subscribe now and be notified whenever the next video goes live and if you have a brand that you want to protect go to trademark factory com fill out the form tell us what the brand is and we'll help you protect it with a free comprehensive trademark search for a single all-inclusive flat fee with a hundred percent money-back guarantee I'll see you in the next video you [Applause]
Thanks rimenato5 your participation is very much appreciated
- Thanh Berentson
About the author
I've studied labor law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and I am an expert in applied physics. I usually feel pleased. My previous job was labor relations advisor I held this position for 5 years, I love talking about jigsaw puzzles and lassoing. Huge fan of Wanz I practice fencing and collect casino chips.
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