The Big Game

by Nosetackle Supreme on May 25, 2007 10:57 AM PDT

The NFL is absolutely ridiculous.

Faced with the opposition of Stanford and Cal, the NFL has changed courses on its efforts to trademark the phrase "The Big Game.'' It has decided to punt.

On Friday it abandoned its applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the phrase.

The NFL had insisted its trademark applications, filed early in 2006, had nothing to do with the Bay Area universities, whose annual football game has been called the Big Game for more than a century.

Brian McCarthy, the NFL's director of corporate communications, reiterated Wednesday that the targets were companies that engage in so-called ambush marketing of the Super Bowl by referring to it in their advertising as the Big Game.

Since the NFL doesn't let companies use the term "Super Bowl" in their adds for chips and dip and beer they decided that they won't let anyone advertise anything that isn't approved by them even without directly mentioning the Super Bowl, (e.g., an ad that says "load up on chips for the big game on Sunday").

I understand that the NFL doesn't want others to get rich off of their efforts, but this is going a bit too far.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.

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Minor Correction

The NFL does let companies (and other entities) use the term "Super Bowl" in their advertising. They just have to pay a royalty/fee to do so. They don't really have to "approve" of an advertisement, they just want their cut of it.

I don't think trademarking "Super Bowl" is too far, but I do agree that trying to trademark "Big Game" is. That'd be almost like Apple wanting a cut out of everyone advertising their peripherals/accessories with the term "media player" or "MP3 player".

They know darn well that applying for that trademark would be stepping on Stanford and Cal's toes, but they didn't care. That is, until they realized that they really wouldn't have been awarded the trademark, and tried to step down before they looked any worse.

by sfgfan on May 25, 2007 11:07 AM PDT reply actions