Category Archives: Media

Can My Company Say “Super Bowl” in Our Super Bowl Ad?

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football-player-260556_1280-2By now, you’ve probably seen and heard countless promotions mentioning “The Big Game”…but maybe you’ve never considered why they don’t just come out and say the actual name of the game.  Well, the term Super Bowl is a registered trademark owned by NFL Properties LLC.  And with advertisers spending $5 million or more on 30-second commercial spots for the Super Bowl, it’s little wonder that the NFL is so protective of its trademarks and copyrights.  (And, even if the price tag for an ad isn’t quite as high, the same is true for other big events and recognizable brands, such as the World Series, the Oscars, March Madness and the Final Four, the Emmys, the Grammys, and the Olympics.)

You might remember hearing about the Indiana church that received a cease and desist letter from the NFL related to its plan to project the game on a big screen and charge admission for a Super Bowl party in 2007.  Although it may seem harsh to go after a church, the letter (which had as much to do with the church’s use of the Super Bowl mark as it did with the church’s plans to show the game on a big screen) resulted in that church — as well as other churches that got wind of the letter — to cancel their plans.

Trademark owners have a duty to police their marks in order to avoid losing rights in the marks.  In other words, mark owners are legally required to protect against unauthorized uses of their marks, or they risk diminishing the value of their brands, damaging their goodwill, and weakening their marks and the value attached to those marks.  It would be pretty hard to justify the sponsorship fees and ad rates that “official” sponsors and advertisers pay if any of these mark owners allowed anyone else to benefit without having to shell out for that privilege.

And although sportscasters and news providers can say “Super Bowl” to talk about the game (thanks to a trademark fair use exception for criticism and news reporting), unless you are an approved, official sponsor, you’ll need to get creative instead of using the “Super Bowl” mark (or hashtag, for all you ambush marketer wannabes) to promote your products, services, or sales.

So, enjoy “The Big Game” and all of the “Star-Studded Red Carpet Events” during “Awards Season,” because “The Battle of The Brackets” in March will be here before you know it!

 

Controlling Your Domain (Name) to Avoid a Domain Name Fumble

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Next week’s NFL Draft brings to mind a cautionary tale…

It could happen to any of us, and it almost happened to the Dallas Cowboys at a crucial time.  In the middle of the 2010 NFL season, buzz surrounding whether Cowboys’ head coach Wade Phillips was going to be fired (which was ultimately the case) was at an all-time high.  No doubt, fans, rivals and press were all scouring the internet for updates on the situation, and the Cowboys’ website was probably the prime online destination of the day. Unfortunately, the team forgot to renew the dallascowboys.com domain, and many would-be site visitors got error screens instead of highlights and instant replays. Talk about a game-changing fumble! See related article here.Blue Url Words Shows Org Biz Com Edu

It’s worth noting that the dallascowboys.com domain name was originally purchased in 1995 and probably was reserved for the longest possible time allowed.  Although most domain name registrars timely send email renewal reminders to domain name owners, it’s likely that whomever was initially responsible for the domain name was long gone and the renewal information didn’t get forwarded to the proper person (and, although auto-renew is available, the credit card info on file with the domain name registrar was probably no longer valid as well). It’s lucky that the ‘Boys became aware of the problem (which you might call an incomplete pass) and quickly renewed the domain before someone else (perhaps a disgruntled, recently fired coach) grabbed it and tried to hold it hostage.

At least Dallas Cowboys Football Club, Ltd. was listed as the domain name owner.  Many times, the person who originally registers the domain name (whether an employee of the organization or someone with the company hired to design the website) is listed as the owner of the domain name and the domain name is never officially transferred to the organization and/or the information doesn’t get updated…which can cause a host of problems for the organization utilizing the domain name (especially if the employee is terminated or if the development company relationship dissolves).

Although the Cowboys had a close call and almost wound up on the disabled list, this is a great example of how easy it can be for an organization to neglect (and almost lose) one of its most important intellectual property assets. We all know how valuable your website is to your business, so here’s what you should do to prepare your domain name offensive strategy…

If you have a website: 

(1)   Determine who is listed as the owner of your domain name.

To find out who owns your domain name and when the registration expires, type in the domain name (e.g., dallascowboys.com) in a WHOIS search database, such as InterNIC, Network Solutions, or GoDaddy.

(2)   Check to ensure that this information is correct. 

If the Administrative and/or Technical Contact information is not in your company’s name, you’ll want to update this information as quickly as possible.

You may need a Domain Name Transfer Agreement to perfect the chain of title for the domain name ownership.  (While you’re at it, you may also want to make sure you have a Website Development Agreement in place with any third-party web developer for the website associated with the domain name so you own/have rights to your web content and design.)

If the domain name is registered to one of your company’s employees or officers, add this to your employee exit checklist to ensure that this information is updated should the employee/officer leave the company.

A disgruntled/terminated employee or website developer with sole control of a company domain name can easily redirect internet, e-mail and intranet traffic within a matter of moments and bring business to a standstill.

(3)   Calendar a reminder for the domain name renewal date.  

The expiration date for the domain name registration is listed in the WHOIS information (see #1 above).

 

How to Protect Titles of Creative Works

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Although movies, TV shows, art, books, musibooks-498422_1280c, lyrics and recordings are protected by copyright, the titles, names and tag lines associated with these types of creative works do not qualify for copyright protection. However, in certain instances, titles of creative works may be protectable as trademarks.

For example, you cannot register a trademark for the title, or a portion of a title, of a single creative work (such as a book, a television episode, a film, a live theatre production, or a phonograph record).  [NOTE: Computer software and computer games are not treated as single creative works.]

However, if the title has been (or will be) used in connection with a series of creative works (e.g., a series of books, the second edition of a book with significant changes, a periodically issued magazine, a television or movie series, a series of live performances [such as by a musical artist], educational seminars, or a continuing radio program), it may constitute a mark for either entertainment or educational services.

For more information about how to protect titles, here’s an article I wrote entitled “A Different Kind of Title Insurance: How to Protect Titles of Creative Works” that was published in Bloomberg BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal.