Texas A&M now going after the Colts

[hawknation2015]

Do you think it is wrong for the Hawks to have a trademark on "12's"?

It would be totally unnecessary if not for A&M's incessant bitchfest. The government should not even permit commonly derived phrases, like 12th man in football or 6th man in basketball or three-peat for three repeat championships, to be monopolized by one entity. A&M should not own the phrase 12th Man any more than the dozens of other football teams who have used the phrase since the 11-man-per-team game was invented.

So you're saying Hawks are wrong also.

The reason the Hawks had to patent it is because their fans and announcers use it, and if they don't patent it, someone like A&M will, then turn around and sue them for using it.

It's basically self-defense.

More likely, if the Seahawks had not protected themselves with their own trademarks, A&M would have attempted to claim that the Seahawks usage of '12s' and the like is confusingly similar to their "12th MAN" trademark.

Which it is . . . they all refer to the same commonly derived phrase.

 

[hawknation2015]

The first recorded use of the term "twelfth man" was a magazine published by the University of Minnesota in September, 1900, that referred to "the mysterious influence of the twelfth man on the team, the rooter."[1] Later, in the November 1912 edition of The Iowa Alumnus, an alumni publication of the University of Iowa (then known as State University of Iowa), E.A. McGowan described the 1903 game between Iowa and the University of Illinois. In his article, titled "The Twelfth Player" McGowan wrote: "The eleven men had done their best; but the twelfth man on the team (the loyal spirited Iowa rooter) had won the game for old S.U.I."

https://books.google.com/books?id=5b4NA ... ll&f=false

A&M did not use the 12th Man phrase until 21 years after the University of Minnesota and did not display their first "Twelfth Man" banner until 1968, which looks like it was scrawled by an illiterate hillbilly:

 

[Smellyman]

It should also be noted that East Texas is the headquarters for patent trolls and courts handing out patents like crazy. Texas is just an awful state.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/why-do-patent-trolls-go-texas-its-not-bbq

 

[rideaducati]

The Seahawks were perfectly willing to share the 12th Man with A&M and any other football team that elected to use the commonly derived phrase. They were forced to seek a trademark for 12s (no apostrophe) in order to protect their use of the derivation of the phrase from A&M.

What A&M is doing is even more ridiculous in that they are targeting non-competitors, i.e. NFL and HS School, for litigation.

How can you share something that you don't own the rights to?

So doing a wrong is okay if it's to correct another wrong.

Several colleges are stopping hs teams from using the same logo, are they all wrong as well?

Yes, they are all wrong. Greed has forced all of this stupid crap. How the government allowed a trademark of a commonly used phrase to an entity that wasn't the first or only entity using it just shows the lack of common sense in government.

 

[chris98251]

Just another example of greed in our country. What's next, someone goes thru the dictionary and because they use words in it patent everything they use and sue people for speaking English?

 

[Scottemojo]

It's self preservation . . . not "another wrong." You wouldn't fire a shotgun at your neighbor, right? Except, that is, if your neighbor starts firing at you. In the Seahawks' case, they didn't even fire back. They ducked and covered and then bought a new house in another part of town.

Logos are not the same thing as commonly derived phrases. Logos have to be drawn or otherwise created by the artist. To come up with the phrase 6th Man in basketball requires exactly three things: knowledge of the English language, knowledge that there are five starters in basketball, and sufficient human brains cells to complete the thought.

So, they elected to pay a fee originally, then decided against that and are now honoring the trademark. So PA and the Hawks are agreeing that the trademark is a legit way of doing business.

So, is the NFL wrong to not let anyone else use "Super Bowl"?

I will answer your question with a question.

Do you defend them out of a love of justice (in the area of trademarks, which is completely amoral and more about who got there first with a piece of paper, trademarks are the legal equivilent of Columbus "discovering" America) or do you defend them because you love A&M?

 

[Laloosh]

I will answer your question with a question.

Do you defend them out of a love of justice (in the area of trademarks, which is completely amoral and more about who got there first with a piece of paper, trademarks are the legal equivilent of Columbus "discovering" America) or do you defend them because you love A&M?

 

[253hawk]

If A&M really, truly, honestly cared about it...they'd never have put a price tag on it. "The 12th Man" was largely irrelevant to the rest of the entire country until Seattle's SB push in 2005 gave everyone a little peek at it. A&M got butthurt because it was theirs and how dare anyone else but them give the term some actual notoriety.

The whole thing is beyond petty and stupid.

 

[drdiags]

The way things stand currently, it shows consistency on A&M's part. If they don't push to have their patent honored then why even have one? When they came after the Seahawks, I didn't like it because it was hurting a team I care about. But for Aggies fans and university I could understand the outrage.

I have seen our fans take umbrage with other NFL teams that had started similar 12th man ceremonies before games such as the Titans and Colts to name a few.

There is money involved in this as well as tradition so I am not surprised that the Aggies would push to enforce their rights.

The other thing to be fair is that the Seahawks were not under the national spotlight until their run up to *XL. It probably wasn't a big deal to the Aggies until more national attention and acclaim was paid to the Seahawks "12th Man". At least that is my recollection.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

Has anyone patented "A&M SUCKS" "A&M SUCKS" "A&M SUCKS" yet? 3 times only...not 2 times, not 4 times. Only 3 times. Need to be specific from what I was told. :shock:

 

[DTexHawk]

I will answer your question with a question.

Do you defend them out of a love of justice (in the area of trademarks, which is completely amoral and more about who got there first with a piece of paper, trademarks are the legal equivilent of Columbus "discovering" America) or do you defend them because you love A&M?

Why does it have to be an either/or?

 

[Threedee]

Hopefully, the judge will realize the only thing tarnishing the "12th man" image is the play of ATM.

Haha, I get a kick out of calling them ATM.