A trademark is a distinctive word, name, phrase, symbol, design, or other device used by a company (or person) to distinguish its goods or services from the goods or services of other companies and to identify itself as the source of its goods or services. Generally speaking, the terms brand, logo, slogan, and name are simply either synonyms for “trademark” or refer to different types of trademarks. Quick - What's Captiol One ad slogan? How about Allstate? And Burger King? I’m sure you could think of several slogans that relate to a many of the products you use in everyday life. In the multibillion-dollar sports industry, the most competitive contests are often fought off the playing field, where athletes, businesses, teams and events jostle for name recognition in hopes of capturing a bigger share of the entertainment dollar. When it comes to sporting events, there's no spectacle quite like the Super Bowl. With an expected U.S. TV audience in the neighborhood of 100 million for Sunday's game and when the Super Bow comes to town local vendors see it as a way to make money.
One of the latest trademark controversy in the NFL is with the New Orleans Saints chant
“ Who Dat say dey gonna beat them Saints” Local vendors and t-shirt makers have been sent letters from the NFL asking them to stop the selling of shirts with the traditional cheer on them. The League says that the shirts infringe on a legal trademark it owns. But locally there are two brothers and life long Saint fans that say they own the phrase which has been around long before the team. The phrase is shortend to “who dat” on shirts and signs that are sold at the Saint’s game. So the question that many locals have is how can the NFL just come around and trademark a chant that has been around for more than 100 years. It seems that since the Saint’s went to the Super Bowl and gained more exposure everyone wants to make money off of them. The locals said "It is what it is and we have no problem paying royalties as long as we don have to stop the sells of the product for good". We all can make money off of the slogan and still keep business here locally.
League spokesperson confirmed that the league has sent letters out to local vendors asking them to stop selling merchandise with “Who Dat” printed on it. The league said that they are protecting the locals with the selling of the merchandise because they give off the assumption to locals that the Saints have endorsed the product of an unlicensed vendor, which that isn’t the case. What they don’t understand is that NFL has an image to up hold as well and we have to make it clear that we do not endorse any vendor that is not licensed. But to add to the controversy WhoDat Inc., which is controlled by the lifetime fans, brothers Sal and Steve, say they too claim the rights of the slogan. They asked and argued the point of “How were we able to record “ Who Dat say they gonna beat them Saints” the song with Aaron Nevile and many of Saints players and the NFL didn’t make an up roar about that. They can't pick and choose to support a struggling team only in the up times and take all of the income from the big events when the saint’s play. We have been fans and remain fans prior to the Saint’s going to the Super bowl and by locally selling the merchandise keeps money in the city and supports it's growth.
It seems unclear to me, if anyone owns it, it sounds as if it belongs to the city and the people.
The orgins of the slogan are unclear as well and historian say the slogan came out back in the 19th century minstrel shows and later again in vaudeville routines. The slogan has also been used in a 1938 MGM cartoon, yelled out at high school games and used in everyday conversation in the small city. So the question still remains who owns it? It’s quiet clear why the NFL and locals want to own it because the branding of the slogan has been created and without a doubt will make money on anything printed on. So “Who Dat” getting the rights of the slogan? Your guess is as good as mine and many local attorneys offer free legal help to locals that want to keep the slogan local. I say stop taking the fun out of the game and keep playing good football everyone can make money off the slogan.
To watch a video of the recent controversy click the link below:
http://www.wbrz.com/videoplayer/?video_id=1463&categories=58,95,165
Reference Article:
wwltv.com
Posted on January 29, 2010 at 10:32 PM
Updated Saturday, Jan 30 at 8:57 PM
After massive public outcry, criticism from congressman and U.S senators, and the bright lights of the national spotlight, the NFL is now calling the Who Dat controversy one major misunderstanding. So is the NFL finally easing up on its policies or just clarifying what it has said all along?
Tessa Jackson is in the market for some new Who Dat gear, but with the NFL now threatening legal action against area t-shirt shops for selling certain kinds of Who Dat merchandise…..she's decided to create her own.
"To me the Fleur de Lis is part of our civic brand and I feel like it's on loan to the Saints," said Jackson. "So for them to tell us as a city as citizens we can't use phrases, that's galling!"
For those hoping to grab the last of the store made Who Dat shirts, your luck just ran out at the Uptown shop Fleurty Girl Apparel.
"I actually got the last shirt," said customer Abigail Wible.
But while the shirts here may be gone, the controversy still lingers, as U.S. Senator David Vitter has even jumped into the ring.
"This position of the NFL is outrageous," Vitter told Eyewitness News. "It's offensive and it's also legally indefensible."
In a letter to the Commissioner of the NFL, Vitter wrote, "I would urge you to drop this obnoxious and legally unsustainable position and instead agree that "Who Dat" is in the public domain, giving no one exclusive trademark rights."
Otherwise, Vitter says he's threatening to mass produce his own shirts that read "Who Dat Say We Can't Print Who Dat."
Today the NFL shot back saying, not all uses of Who Dat and the Fleur de Lis are off limits...
"Rather, the NFL has sent our narrowly targeted letters, challenging the sale of products bearing the Fleur de Lis and Who Dat marks only when those products contain or are advertised using other trademarks or identifiers of the Saints," wrote Jeffrey Miller, NFL Government Relations and Public Policy Vice President.
And as for why the owner of Fleurty Girl Apparel was ordered by the NFL to stop selling their Who Dat version t-shirt, the NFL says it has nothing to do with the t-shirt design, but instead how it was marketed. The NFL says on the store's website called it the 'official twitter hash tag for the Saints.'
Even so, it still seems to add up a sort of nightmarish public relations mess for the NFL.
"They start to lose something long term and that is a sense of loyalty and credibility," said Harish Sujan, professor of consumer behavior marketing at Tulane University. "Now how it will play it itself out I don't know, it's stop going to stop people from watching football and being part of it, so there will be some amount of resentment.”
The Saints franchise has remained mostly mum, saying it's NFL who enforces trademark infringement, but today Coach Sean Payton weighed in.
"I don't think anyone can own Who Dat personally," said Payton.
Jackson says she thinks dat, too, and adds nothing will stop her from sporting Who Dat.
"We're a scrappy bunch of people here in New Orleans so I think making our own saints t-shirts are right up our ally."
Rep. Charlie Melancon, who happens to be challenging Vitter for his senate seat is also weighing in. On his campaign website, Melancon started an online petition urging the NFL to change its Who Dat policy.
As for the Saints, the day after they found out they were going to the Super bowl in Miami, the teams' owner Tom Benson, applied for a Who Dat trademark in Florida.
References:
http://www.wbrz.com/news/who-dat-controversy-pits-fans-against-nfl
Jennifer Levitz, "Who Dat Owns 'Who Dat'? Dat's Us, Sez da NFL", Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2010.
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