As The Cubs Head To The World Series, The Team Is Also Raging Against Single-Word Trademarks

from the mind-your-c's-and-w's dept

On the bright side, I suppose, if the plan by the Cubs was to undertake an overly aggressive stance on trademark protection every round of the playoffs, there's only one round left, so this should be it. We had just been discussing that as the team entered the League Series to attempt to make the World Series, it had filed a lawsuit against the many street vendors that line the path to Wrigley Field for selling counterfeit merchandise. This suit, while perfectly within the rights of the team, bucked a decades-long trend of allowing those sales. It was part of the tradition of going to a game, walking by these vendors and seeing their kooky designs. Another tradition for the team is raising a blue "W" flag whenever they win. That "W" was part of trademark opposition by the Cubs and MLB when a business unrelated to the professional sports market dared to use the single letter in a logo for its financial services product.

And now it seems that, on the eve of the World Series, the Cubs are going after more than one kind of W still, as well as the letter C.

On October 17, one day after losing Game 2 of the National League Championship Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs filed two TTAB oppositions against trademark applications pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). One mark, filed by Laserwave Graphics, Inc., is for a design that includes the letter “W”. Another, submitted by CopyClear, contains a large “C” with accompanying letters that spell out the company’s name.

Here are the two logos in question. Note how the first makes it extremely clear what company it represents, while the other is simply a "W."


That image, unfortunately, is grayed out, while the Cubs claim that the colors being used within the logos plays a part in its opposition. Let's take those images in reverse order. The "W" is in the trademark application for Laserwave Graphics, which does imaging, branding, and printing on a variety of products. The "W" design appears to be mostly used on watches. The Cubs claim that some of these watch designs also incorporate baseballs, hence the problem. Except we're still talking about a single letter, in a different font, used in a market for which the Cubs are not well known. It's difficult to believe people are looking at these watches and thinking "Cubs."

As for the Copy Clear logo, it's somewhat ironic that Copy Clear's business is in licensing copyrights. The Cubs make much of the fact that the "C" in Copy Clear's logo is red, similar to the red "C" in the team's logo. Which is strange, because on their website, the Copy Clear logo is black with a green background. But even if a red version of the logo indeed exists, the company's name is spelled out within it as well. Where precisely is the customer confusion going to exist here? The "C" is clearly a reference to the registered copyright symbol, not to the Cubs, and it seems like everyone would make that connection.

So, my dear, dear Cubs: I love you, but it's probably time to stop worrying so much about how others are using letters that you use as well. Just go out and win this thing, please.

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  • icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 25 Oct 2016 @ 4:02pm

    The cubs logo looks suspiciously like... ©.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous, 25 Oct 2016 @ 5:12pm

      Re: Cubs logo looks suspiciously like... ©.

      Might the Cubs sue to end copyright?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Whoever, 25 Oct 2016 @ 4:07pm

    Once again the lawyers got paid.

    That's sufficient reason: the lawyers were paid.

    If they don't pursue these bogus claims, they don't get paid.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pixelation, 25 Oct 2016 @ 5:01pm

    Holy Cow!

    Harry must be rolling over in his grave.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    TechDescartes (profile), 25 Oct 2016 @ 5:09pm

    ♫♫ Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? ♫♫

    Well, now we know that Sesame Street isn't located in Chicago because the Cubs would have learned this a long time ago:

    “One of these things is not like the others,
    One of these things just doesn't belong,
    Can you tell which thing is not like the others
    By the time I finish my song?”

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2016 @ 5:55pm

    What about "D" for dicks

    Or "I" for idiots
    Or "G" for greedy
    Or "E" for egotists
    You're proven losers for the above reasons
    All you have won is the pennant
    The series is yet an open question yet
    You don't own the world, alphabet or all the fonts
    The rest of the world is not going to bow down and kiss your ass to use "C and W", get a life, ours does not start or end at home plate even though yours may.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2016 @ 6:56pm

    So when will they sue...

    The CW?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Padpaw (profile), 25 Oct 2016 @ 7:22pm

    when you have more money than you know what to do with, the natural thing to do is to sue people with less money than you so you can take their money to add to the pile you insanely desire

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    aethercowboy (profile), 26 Oct 2016 @ 5:20am

    Don't Forget

    The Indians' logo is also a red C.

    This rabbit hole just turned into a hollow earth.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2016 @ 8:03am

    That "W" does not seem to look anything like the one the Cubs hang, which is sharp-cornered (and already a registered mark) - https://www.google.com/search?q=Cubs+%22W%22&espv=2&biw=1536&bih=860&tbm=isch&tb o=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF-PbW3fjPAhWkr1QKHdtLBvoQsAQIJA&dpr=1.25

    .

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2016 @ 12:53pm

    They are in the process of changing venues to W.C.Fields, my little chickpea.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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