MARCH MADNESS…or Bust

I’m counting down the minutes to leaving my office later today to begin my favorite weekend of the year – the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament!  Even though my bubble was bursted on Selection Sunday – my team didn’t make it this year – I am always thrilled by the drama of tourney time and watching unpaid athletes play their hearts out hoping to bask in their one shining moment.  Incidentally, not a single team from Wisconsin made the tournament?  When was the last time that ever happened?  To take that even a step further, when was the last time not a single team from Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin was in the tournament?  That must be a rarity.

There have always been a number of trademark issues surrounding the tournament – whether its a team’s name or mascot, the rights of a student-athlete, or using NCAA marks in any advertisement.

I’ll just get this well-worn recommendation out of the way – MARCH MADNESS, unless you’re a paid sponsor of the NCAA, don’t use it.  Not on an ad.  Not on a beer-themed bracket, like this one from last year (and I didn’t find one yet for this year on the site).  Not even as MARKDOWN MADNESS for something as seemingly unrelated to basketball tournaments as automobile dealership services or MUNCH MADNESS for providing information about restaurants; restaurant reviews; and an online tournament allowing people to rank restaurants.  (Psst…the NCAA even owns the mark MUNCH MADNESS, after it was transferred from a NY Times entity).

Unless you’re an official NCAA bracket game, you may even want to avoid using the word BRACKET in advertisements during this time.  Yes, the NCAA recently challenged a filing for DON’T LET ONE TEAM BUST YOUR BRACKET only on the basis of their alleged continuous use of “images of brackets, and marks consisting of or referring to the term BRACKET, in commerce in connection with entertainment services, and related promotional and sponsorship services.”  After two years, the applicant withdrew the application.

Since the NCAA purchased the trademark registrations, and associated rights, to MARCH MADNESS in 2010 (yes, can you believe DuetsBlog has been around longer than that?) purportedly for about $17 million, the NCAA has taken legal action against more than a dozen other marks, like MARCH WAGNESS, and likely many others through demand letters and discussions.

Aside from not using the NCAA’s marks and purchasing rights to protect your marks, there are a couple other important trademark considerations that the NCAA tourney tips off:

– Meddle with unitary marks with caution (and preferably not at all). Despite all they hoopla (haha) about MARCH MADNESS, the NCAA filed an application for MARCH TO THE MADNESS, inserting two small but critical words into the well-known MARCH MADNESS mark.  It’s a clever play on the mark, but in some circumstances could ultimately could serve to weaken the strength of MARCH MADNESS.

– Employment contracts can impact trademark rights.  A CBS Sports reporter and online columnist filed an application for THIS IS MARCH. for apparel.  Employment agreements – as well as legal precedence with respect to the employee-employer relationship – often given any intellectual property related to the employee’s work for the employer as owned by the employer.  Given the discussion about paying student athletes (and the scandal surrounding payments or favors surreptiously made to court high school players), could players potentially be “employees” thereby creating questions of ownership of player-related trademarks like Anthony Davis’ UNI-BROW?

Enjoy the games this week – the best week of the year!

 

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