Posted on 01/29/2006 6:43:05 AM PST by texianyankee
Someone in Texas really needs to pull their panties out and relax.
The 12 th man is great at college station, when they march out singing "POOR AGGIES".
But can A&M use the name, what with the A&M records label?
(Everyone from Burt Bacharach to the Black Eyed Peas;
Carpenters to Joe Cocker; Fairport Convention to Blues
Traveler) :)
Thanks for pinging this story to the NFL ping list. I was hoping someone would do that for me.
Rutgers University has also sued Texas A&M for the existence of their football team. Rutgers was, of course, the victor of the first intercollegiate football game.
Actually, it probably would. It is trademarked which is legal protection. The Seahawks can't use it any more than they can sell merchandise with the trademarked phrases, "Have it your way" or "Coke is it."
I understand how a trademark provides protection, but I didn't think you could trademark items that were already being used by others. Can't the Seahawks, and others, claim prior use and make the Aggies defend thier trademark? (OK, no more lawyer playing for me. I'm in over my head.)
You're entitled to say "Have it your way" and you probably said it in some context before Burger King got its trademark. But you're no longer allowed to use that phrase in marketing.
But if they specifically obtained the trademark for the purposes of intercollegiate marketing, then they don't have a leg to stand on.
It's somewhat trivial and spiteful. If the Hawks had gone down in the playoffs, we wouldn't be hearing squat about it.
Employment for lawyers.
I think the Hawks oughta just tell em "We'll keep it on the PRO level, you keep it on the collegiate. And if you persist in making azzes outa yourself, we will NEVER EVER EVEN IF HELL FREEZES OVER draft anybody from A&M"
That's just not true from a legal standpoint.
Starbucks Coffee can't use "Have it your way" by arguing that Burger King's trademark only applies to hamburgers.
If you want to argue that all trademarks should be abolished, fine. That's a different debate. But you can't argue that some should be respected and some shouldn't depending on your allegiance to a particular football team.
OK, well I'm not an intellectual property lawyer.
But, for instance, say the Seahawks sell a Jersey in their proshop that has the number 12 on it.
Are the Seahawks the only team in the NFL that have Jerseys with 12 on it? Of course not.
So unless A&M is gonna insist that the entire NFL and all collegiate football retire the number 12, then they CAN'T say that they have absolute, exclusive rights to it.
So I don't see them prevailing in court.
A&M doesn't have a trademark on the number 12. They have it on "12th Man."
They're not pressing this in court, but if the Seahawks continue to market stuff based on their fans being the "12th Man" then they're extremely likely to lose in court if it goes that far.
Well they have a noble history of it and they took it to new levels. Further I remember sitting in the Kingdome, circa 1980s, watching the Seahawks, and I don't recall any 12th man hype. But that begs the issue. I suspect a little research will show that the 12th man concept and utterance, was and has been used by most teams in the world. Long before the Aggies.
First off, I'm no lawyer, either....however, the Aggies were using the term, "12th Man" long before the Seahawks were even formed as an NFL franchise. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the term, "12th Man" sorta originated with A&M. However, my memory has failed me at times in the past.....
I'm inclined to think A&M has a case. But not a good one.
"12th man" is a concept.
Can I trademark "First born child"?
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of instances where the idea of a 12th man is relevant.
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