The original 12th man E. King Gill
Posted on 01/29/2006 6:43:05 AM PST by texianyankee
The Seahawks are going to have about 12 fans in the stands in Ford Field, the rest will be Steeler fans.
Have it your way. ;-)
We'll see how this plays out, but as an attorney my opinion is that A&M has a much stronger case than you currently understand.
Trademarks have to be vigorously defended, however, or they fall into the public domain. That is why corporations have to play hardball with mom and pop stores, high schools and charities when their trademarked slogan is borrowed by someone else.
Coca Cola has tried to do this with the trademarked term "Coke". In the south and other places, "Coke" has become a generic term for all soft drinks, but (AFIK) Coca Cola still defends any usage of the term for commerical or advertising reasons.
The term 12th man is very generic and has been used by every high school and college in America - maybe not to the level that A&M has used it, but still it is very commonplace. As far as I know, A&M has not vigorously defended this term when high schools and colleges have used it. If they haven't then a court challenge by them would probably result in them losing the trademark altogether.
Something has really happened to A&M the last few years. I used to really like them, but lately they seem to exhibiting really bizarre behavior.
To add to my previous point, it is important to note that according to the Seahawks, it is the fans and the media and the not organization itself that are off and running with the "12th man" concept.
If A&M wants to sue the fans for trademark infringement (which is certainly not beyond them in their current state) then they can have it. Suing the organization (if the Seahwawks are being honest) seems to be pointless.
That's why this whole thing is so stupid. It's a civil matter, they have to serve Seattle with notice and demand.
Seattle front office types up a memo telling everybody in the organization to not use the term "12th man". They can use 12th player, 12th mvp, 12th guy on the bench, whatever.
They could still sell Jerseys with the number 12 on it.
Problem solved. Except for the ill will generated because of A&M's strongarm tactics. They would get alot more respect if, for instance they picked the Seahawks in the game, and then pulled their legal shenanigans after the SB.
I don't know about the Texas situation, but A&M should have waited until after the superbowl. Their timing stinks and makes them look silly.
A trademark must be vigorously defended in order to remain valid which is why Paul McCartney defended his. A trademark holder cannot selectively defend the trademark or it will be vacated. As I said in an earlier post, that is why corporations have to go after mom and pop stores, churches, charities and high schools.
If a Coke didn't defend its trademark against the any churches or charities using it's trademark then it couldn't defend it against Pepsi either.
It is questionable if A&M has actually defended its trademark in this way.
I am having trouble understanding how a non profit can even get a Trademark.
I don't think the school itself has the trademark. I could be wrong, but I think that it belongs to the Athletic Association which is possibly "for profit".
In college sports it can be hard to figure out who actually owns what. At the University of Georgia last year, there was a turf war between the University of Georgia Foundation and the school itself. Most of the university trustees were also board members of the foundation so it was hard to figure out exactly who ran the school or the athletic program.
The aggies would still be pathetic with 12 men ON the field. My take, some Texan's trying to get in to Paul Allen's wallet.
When I watched Seattles 10:00 O'clock KONG News coverage of this Friday I could not believe the subliminal Message I heard. As they were reporting on the story, they were showing clips of Seahawk fans, in #12 jerseys and such, but while they were doing this you could hear very quickly and softly a girls voice say, "If you are from Texas you are a liar"……I turned to my wife and said, did you hear that? It seemed to be a subliminal slam against Bush to me.
Has Texas A&M copyrighted "the 12th Man"? If not, seems like A&M has no case.
...A&M has twice registered trademarks for "The 12th Man" label - in 1990 and 1996 - that include entertainment services, "namely organizing and conducting intercollegiate sporting events," and products, such as caps, T-shirts, novelty buttons and jewelry.
The reason is that they know Texas A&M would lose.
Seattle was using and publicizing the 12th man phrase at least a decade before A&M tried to legally claim the phrase. Even if they have a legally protectable phrase (which is doubtful), they can't stop someone who was already using the phrase long before they filed their claim.
Furthermore, Seattle continued to make liberal use of the phrase after A&M tried to protect it as well. So even if A&M has legal merit to their claim to a legally protected phrase, failure to enforce those rights in the past means they've lost those rights at least vis a vis Seattle.
The final kicker, of course, is that the owner of the Seahawks is the multi-gazillionaire Paul Allen. A&M won't scare him off just because he has to pay a few lawyers.
Sorry guys, A&M loses, Seattle wins. In fact, it's not even close.
Should be a fun game. I was predicting Seattle wins 34-10 (or 34-17, depending on how much coffee I just drank...). But when someone pointed out how strong both defenses are I had to change my tune.
So now I'm going with Seattle, 27-7. (I'm leaving room for the Steelers to get a garbage touchdown in the 4th quarter.)
The Aggies tradition of the 12th man goes back to 1922. little research would have shown that.
I have nothing against Seattle, but if they had any class at all, they would have come to an agreement with the Aggies on this one. Tradition means a lot to a lot of people, especially the Aggies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.