Last February, Roy Fox said he spent more than $1,000 to file for the trademarks "Harbowl" and "Harbaugh Bowl," in anticipation that Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers and John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens might soon play in the big game.
"Right before the conference championship games last year, I thought to myself, 'Can you imagine if these guys played each other?'" Fox said. "If Pat Riley would go through the trouble of trademarking three-peat, why shouldn't I try this?"
But in August, a couple of weeks before this season started, the NFL sent a note to Fox saying that it was concerned that his recent trademarks could easily be confused with the NFL's trademark of Super Bowl.
"There were two questions asked of him," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "Was he affiliated with any NFL teams? The answer was no. And was he in any way affiliated with the Harbaugh brothers? And that answer was no."
In follow-up correspondence provided to ESPN.com by Fox, the NFL encouraged Fox to abandon the marks, citing conflict with its mark.
Fox said the league refused to provide him with any remedy. He first asked the league to reimburse him for his costs to file for the trademarks. He also asked for a couple of Colts season tickets and an autographed photo of league commissioner Roger Goodell.
He says the person within the league office he spoke to denied all his requests. After the language got increasingly more threatening, including one note that said the league would oppose his filing and seek to have him pay its legal bills, Fox eventually obliged.
In October, he sent the forms to the NFL, which were then sent to the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office. An online search shows that the trademarks were abandoned on Oct. 24, 2012.
black forest ufc 144 fight card ufc 144 results acura nsx all star weekend 2012 giada de laurentiis howard hughes
No comments:
Post a Comment