Who Dat Holds The Trademark To Who Dat? NFL Threatens While WhoDat Inc. Asks Why?
from the who-dat-say-dey-gonna-beat-dem-trademarks dept
It seems like every year there's some sort of controversy over trademarks and the Superbowl. Of course, the NFL has been famous for aggressively defending trademarks. For example, it's been so aggressive in claiming that no one other than official sponsors can even mention the word Superbowl (even though it should be legal if used descriptively and accurately), that when many advertisers started switching to the euphemism "The Big Game," the NFL tried to trademark that too, even though it wasn't even the one who had come up with the phrase. This year, apparently, the big issue is over who owns the phrase "Who Dat" which is apparently a catch-phrase associated with the"Sure, a fleur de lis can belong to the Saints, but in very specific usage, and everybody knows what that is," Monistere explained. "If you go back to 1967, to date, they have registered and used the fleur de lis in a very specific way. They put it on the Saints helmet and on the Saints 'shield.' Its colors are very specific -- they're 'old gold and black.' But for the NFL to expand that definition and say that no matter what color and what style of fleur de lis, if you put it on an item, it means Saints, it is, as many believe, is just not correct. The fleur de lis belongs to everyone including the people of New Orleans.The Monistere brothers seem particularly annoyed by the NFL bullying small t-shirt makers, saying that they're more than happy to grant licenses to those folks to produce Who Dat merchandise, and merchants have said that the NFL communication has been tremendously threatening and aggressive, while the Monistere's have been quite friendly and accommodating. In fact, the Monistere's seem particularly annoyed that the NFL is bullying small shop owners like Fleurty Girl, who received a cease-and-desist:
"Here we are going to the Superbowl for the first time in 43 years and these NFL guys are here harassing the local small businesses," Monistere said. "Their merchandise sales are well over $320 BILLION a year! The NFL has become an intellectual property company. They make money selling their logos and image. With that kind of money coming in, they focus their attention on Fleurty Girl? I don't have a problem with them protecting their intellectual property, but when they do it to the extent of trying to intimidate people into believing that the Fleur de lis is theirs -- well, that's just a bullying technique."As for the New Orleans Saints themselves? The organization there has apparently publicly said that WhoDat holds the rights on the trademark.
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Filed Under: football, trademark, who dat
Companies: new orleans saints, nfl, whodat inc.
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"Who Dat?" Mark
See USPTO
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Prior art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis
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Re: Prior art
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Re: Prior art
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Re: Re: Prior art
Blame Canada why don't you.
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Re: Prior art
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i can haz breathing
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Re:
If only we could....if only....
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for Pete's sake..
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Re: for Pete's sake..
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Fluer de Lis
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1. Wassup?
2. Who dat?
My God, how I hope we get past this newer one quickly!!
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Re:
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Re:
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Perhaps, but it's only been the past couple of weeks that it's been plastered everywhere across the country.
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Re: Who Dat!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat%3F#Origins
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Fleur de Lis
The NFL clearly needs to put a stop to that.
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Fleur de Lis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis
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Re:
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R U Kidding me?
The expression WHO DAT was a very common slang expression for answering a knock on the door during the 50's. Especially in NYC.
As for the Fleur de Lis,,,
It has been shown and printed in every color combination imaginable on everything from the coats of arms to the flags of European households and royalty, especially the French monarchy. This symbol has been around for over 500 years and it too is considered 'public domain'. I myself have seen a family crest that has a Fleur de Lis on it, and it hails from the Austrian, Hungarian, Russian branch of the family. Coincidentally it happens to be in the same colors as the team in LA.
Who does the NFL think they are kidding,,,? How can they even think to claim a copyright on things that have been in the public domain for ages.?
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Who Dat.
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The fleur de lis belongs to everyone including the people of New Orleans.
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Who Dat?
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The earliest the Bengals can claim their "Who Dey" is 1981 (as per http://bengalsjungle.com/whodeyorigin.html). Last I looked, 1979 and the 1890's pre-dated 1981. Screw dat, the Bengals did not invent Who Dat, and the NFL sure as hell doesn't own it. Who Dat, if it belongs to anyone, belongs to the people of Louisiana and we will defend it with every breath we've got!
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Disgraceful Bullying Tactic by NFL
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Big Sports (TM) strikes again
It's not like they don't have enough money already. Then again, when your primary employees are a bunch of whining primadonnas that think twelve million a year for running around a field isn't enough, then maybe they do have a point.
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Who Dat
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Bigfoot (tm) (R)
Bigfoot . . . I probably owe someone a license fee for that huh.
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Who Dat
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Just how far is too far
Coach Payton says he's not quite familiar with the business side but believes that it should belong to everyone
http://www.newsy.com/videos/the-who-dat-spat
no fun league is fast enough to realize no one's on their side on this issue and blames everything on a "misunderstanding", but sure enough, it'll come back sometime to the next saints
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NFL must watch their step
NFL - Get a life. But more important, stop trying to force your rules on others or you will be prosecuted.
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