NCAA Goes After Vasectomy Clinic's 'Vasectomy Mayhem' Over 'March Mayhem' Ride Along Trademark

from the snip-snip dept

It will come as no surprise to most of our readers that the NCAA is a jealous protector of its March Madness trademark. Much like the Super Bowl, the NCAA likes to march (heh) around and try to pretend like its trademarks give it overly restrictive rights when it absolutely doesn't.

But what you may not be as familiar with is all of the ride along trademarks the NCAA has amassed relating to its men's basketball tournament. For instance, the NCAA also holds a trademark for "March Mayhem" and has used that in advertising partnerships in the past. For some reason, this has caused the NCAA to think that this allows it to oppose a trademark for a vasectomy clinic with an admittedly questionable marketing scheme.

The NCAA, which brings you March Madness and the Final Four, has filed a petition of cancellation with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to remove a registration owned by Virginia Urology Center, P.C. for the trademark “Vasectomy Mayhem.” It is one of the more ballsy intellectual property protection acts taken by the Association.

It is not altogether clear that the NCAA is still actively using the March Mayhem mark, but that did not prevent some inflammatory claims from being submitted as part of the petition. First, the NCAA acknowledges that Virginia Urology Center uses Vasectomy Mayhem to promote its medical services, which is really where the analysis should have ended and caused the Association to decide it was better to appropriate resources elsewhere.

Right, because the NCAA and the vasectomy clinic are not competing in the same markets. And, one hopes, the NCAA didn't somehow get a trademark for "March Mayhem" in the service categories of medical procedures, healthcare, or baby-stoppage. And, yet, none of this stopped the NCAA from claiming in the petition that the proposed trademark for "Vasectomy Mayhem" would somehow confuse the public and dilutes its own marks.

Registrant’s VASECTOMY MAYHEM mark is confusingly similar to the NCAA Marks, and continued registration and use by Registrant of VASECTOMY MAYHEM with the Registrant’s Services is likely to result in confusion, mistake or deception with Petitioner and/or the goods and services marketed in connection with the NCAA Marks, or in the belief that Registrant or its VASECTOMY MAYHEM services are in some way legitimately connected with, or sponsored, licensed or approved by, Petitioner.

So, a couple of obvious points to make. First, "Vasectomy Mayhem" is a horrible marketing term. Like, truly awful. The last thing anyone wants to associate with their upcoming vasectomy is "mayhem." Secondly, there is some semblance of an association with vasectomies and the basketball tournament. It's something of a cultural thing for men to get vasectomies in March simply so that they can spend their recovery watching the tournament. Why someone would want to get a vasectomy and then watch grown men slam a big ball into the ground over and over again is beyond me, but it's a thing.

But that association doesn't trademark infringement make. And the simple fact is that nobody is going to somehow think that the NCAA is giving out, or endorsing, vasectomies just because one clinic goes on a "Vasectomy Mayhem" blitz.

Filed Under: march madness, march mayhem, trademark, vasectomy, vasectomy mayhem

Newscasters Reenact Final Four Moments Rather Than Wait For Game Highlight Rights To Clear

from the much-more-enjoyable-than-defending-fair-use-in-court dept

Pervasive and extensive copyright law is damage. Route around it. This team of newcasters did (even though it really didn't need to), resulting in something much more entertaining than the content being withheld.

WCJB TV20 in Gainesville, Fla., couldn't legally show highlights of the University of Florida Gators' win over the University of Dayton on March 29. Instead of waiting for footage rights to recap the game, sports anchor Zach Aldridge recruited his coworkers to recreate the game's biggest moments in an office conference room.

Here are the highlights, as recreated using only classically-trained newscasters, a small hoop and a ball. Even the game-ending tears of a Florida Gators player are reenacted for posterity.

In his introduction, Aldridge claims the station would be unable to play the highlights until the following day unless it "broke a whole bunch of laws." Clearly, the use of highlight clips would be covered under fair use (hello, criticism, commentary and NEWS REPORTING).

But you know what? Screw the restrictive IP climate that surrounds every major sporting event. Why play by those rules? Route around it while highlighting the restrictive stupidity that prevents you from showing viewers what they came to watch. Have that clip go viral (388,000 views and counting), rather than the NCAA-approved clips handed out to local broadcasters like gifts from a begrudging God.

I guess this is what maximalists mean when they say strict IP enforcement encourages creativity and innovation.

(Oh, and don't even think about drinking your beverages in anything but an NCAA-approved sponsor's cups.)

Filed Under: basketball, copyright, fair use, march madness, reenactment, sports

NCAA Still Going Backwards On Tournament Streaming

from the seriously? dept

Last year, around NCAA Tournament time, I wrote a piece about how the NCAA was going backwards on streaming the games. Once free streams were locked up behind subscription charges, reducing the pool of eyeballs that could be watching the advertising that actually makes the NCAA and their broadcast partners the real money in this whole situation. It's been something of a disappointment for me, being a sports fan, to see how far the leagues are going to lock up their content rather than expose it to more revenue-generating viewers via the internet. Seriously, can't I just watch the game?

Well, add another wrinkle into the mix for this year's NCAA Tournament. Gone is the $4.99 subscription fee, but before you begin jumping up and down for joy, they've now added cable subscription requirements for any game that isn't on CBS.

Things have changed a bit this time around to stream March Madness online. Last year, the NCAA charged a small fee for access to all of the games. This time around, any of the games that are broadcast on CBS are free for anyone to stream online. The games that are broadcast on TBS, TNT or truTV, the collection of Turner Broadcasting-owned channels, will require a cable subscription authentication.

While this may not strike some of you as wholly unreasonable, it's actually worse for several reasons. First, it's another step backwards from the way things are trending. Cable cords are being cut in favor of the evermore common micro-transactions that occur for online content. I didn't think last year (and still don't) that such a transaction made sense for the Tournament, because it naturally limits viewers for advertising purposes, but at least it was in keeping with the modern trend of viewership. For the NCAA to instead embrace a log in system to stream games that is trending downward in use is downright stupid.

Worse yet, it isn't as if all cable customers can get in either. At least that's the conclusion I came to yesterday when I grudgingly tried to log in from work to watch the games (sorry, boss) and found that my cable provider, 3rd largest provider in the 3rd largest market in America, wasn't listed in the log in options. This may be simply a result of RCN not having a deal worked out with either the NCAA or the cable channels in question, but as the end viewer I don't care about such things. RCN is the only provider for my building and the NCAA's system results in my not being able to watch the games and generate ad revenue for them and their broadcast partners.

Or, rather, I can't watch the games on their sites. I can certainly find them streaming elsewhere, where the ads aren't targeted to my region (or country) and fall outside of the NCAA's control regardless. The NCAA could do this freaky free streaming too, if they wanted. I saw them do it not 3 years ago. So why are they going backwards?

Filed Under: cable connection, march madness, ncaa, streaming
Companies: cbs

NCAA Goes Backwards On Streaming The Basketball Tournament

from the same-service,-now-for-a-fee! dept

If anyone has gotten the streaming sports thing right in the past, it's been NCAA Basketball. I've actually pointed to them as an example in the past of how the rest of the sporting world should embrace streaming their games and advertise the hell out of the experience. Rather than locking down access to viewership, like the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL, the NCAA Basektball Tournament got it right, partnering with broadcasters to stream the games to their sites free of charge, with all the advertising one would expect on television. It was a wonderful method for ensuring that one of my monitors at work had their games on. It made it certain that I'd be that weird guy staring at images on his phone while taking the train home from work. It confused my neighbors as to how I could somehow simultaneously grill steaks on my deck while announcers went ballistic over last second hail mary shots as time ran out on the clock. I was engaged (sorry Mom and Dad, I mean engaged to the game).

And now they've taken that all away from me. To be fair, they're still streaming the games. And they promise that the streams will work across multiple platforms (computer, iPad, iPhone, Android devices, etc.). And it only costs $4.99 for the entire tournament.

But that's where the lie in all this is. It's not just $4.99 to watch the tournament on every device other than my television (where it's FREE!). There are serious mental transactions to consider here. Like most red-blooded Americans, I'm in an NCAA office bracket. Something like half the games in the tournament take place during work hours across the country. Most of us don't have televisions at our desks, in our cubicles, wherever. Watching at work is kind of the whole point here, with all the ducking and dodging from our bosses we have to do as a result. Now, we can argue all we want whether watching the tourney at work is productive or a good idea, but from the NCAA's standpoint, they shouldn't care at all. They should want people to watch. Asking them to pay $4.99 to do all of this is a massive fail, particularly since all of those same advertisements that were in place remain.

So...they're charging for something that used to be free...without adding any benefit. I watched the games on their feeds the past couple of years. This year, not so much. The obvious question is does the money they're making from the $4.99/subscriber outweigh the eyeballs that are no longer watching the advertising because of that cost. Maybe those in the comments can change my mind, but I'm fairly certain there's more folks like me out there than people buying the "package".

Filed Under: basketball, march madness, ncaa, streaming
Companies: ncaa

The First Rule Of NCAA March Madness Is You Can't Mention NCAA March Madness

from the where's-that-happening?-shhhhhh! dept

What is it with sports leagues that think they have the right to deny anyone from making factual statements? We've seen it (repeatedly) with the Olympics and we've seen it with the World Cup... and now we're seeing it with the NCAA men's basketball tournament, better known as March Madness. This week, of course, some of the games will be played in Syracuse (including, I feel the urgent need to mention, the surprise of the tournament, my alma mater Cornell), and jsl4980 was the first of a few of you to send in the news that local businesses are being told they cannot mention the fact that the tournament is being held there. No local businesses are allowed to "welcome" fans or players for the event. They can't mention the NCAA event is happening, or that we're at the "Sweet Sixteen" level.

Of course, that's all according to the NCAA, which is basically lying. They're abusing the rights that trademark law gives them to try to restrict free speech on factual information, in a misguided effort to squeeze more money out of sponsors, by pretending that only sponsors can mention the event. But trademark law does not give you blanket control over the trademarked terms -- and presenting factual information, or welcoming people to a city by mentioning an event that is absolutely happening there should not be considered trademark infringement in the slightest.

Apparently, in the past the NCAA wasn't as abusive of trademarks, but it's learned a thing or two by watching how other sporting events abuse trademark law, and now everyone seems to be bending over backwards assuming that just because the NCAA forbids something that they have the legal right to do so.

Filed Under: basketball, march madness, ncaa, syracuse, trademark
Companies: ncaa

No, The FBI Probably Isn't Looking Into Your March Madness Brackets On Facebook

from the a-little-march-madness-exaggeration dept

Every year around this time, you can be sure of two types of stories: the first will be about how much productivity is lost thanks to March Madness (NCAA basketball tournament, for those who don't know) and the second is about how the customary March Madness pools are probably illegal gambling. This year, it's been turned up a notch, thanks to reports like this one in PC World claiming that the FBI is looking into the brackets available on Facebook thanks to a CBS Sportsline app. From reading the article, you'd think that the FBI is spending valuable resources trying to track down your office pool or the pool among your college buddies. Except... the article doesn't quote anyone at the FBI or even indicate that it tried to get the FBI to comment on the matter. It merely points to a Chicago Tribune article that says Facebook may face "scrutiny," but also provides no proof. That one at least has an FBI quote, but it's clearly in response to a question from the reporter over whether or not such pools violate the law -- not about whether the FBI is actually investigating Facebook.

The PC World report also points to a blog post saying that Facebook is coming under FBI scrutiny, but again provides no proof, other than some unsourced conjecture about the FBI "loitering" around Facebook -- and another link. This one goes to a report at a site called Online Casino Reports, which also gets a quote from the FBI -- but again, it appears to be in response to a question about the legality of betting pools, but not claiming that there's any sort of ongoing investigation. While there's a chance it's happening, there seems to be a bunch of folks reporting on this with no actual evidence that the FBI is looking at this. The only quote from the FBI came from the Chicago Tribune and was clearly in response to a question about the legality of betting on March Madness, not about any investigation into Facebook. So, chances are, the FBI isn't going to burst in on Mark Zuckerberg for putting a couple bucks on North Carolina to win it all -- or on you for picking Cornell (go Big Red) to beat Stanford this Thursday in the opening round, but if you want to be safe, maybe don't bet any money on it in the first place.

Filed Under: basketball, betting, brackets, fbi, march madness, ncaa, office pool, social networks
Companies: facebook, fbi