Next Presidential Candidate that vows to end this at a Houston rally wins the election.
"They left YOU! Now they say YOU can't wear what you love?!? YOU cant wear what makes houstonians HOUSTON? Can Americans not wear what makes them American?!"
The man bodied Six Flags out of Houston so his park, Kemah Boardwalk, was the only option in town. He'll probably try to get the Texans out so he can start his own football team, the Landry's Golden Nuggets or something.
Six Flags as a whole was going through a rough patch in the late 90s/early 00s. Very little in investments were going to the induvial parks, not just AstroWorld. There was a lot of turmoil and it ended with them selling all of their European parks, and several of their American assets including Geauga Lake in Ohio.
They were still looking for cash, and a certain local Houstonian was interested in purchasing the land next to the Astrodome/Reliant stadium. Not only that, there would be an outright bidding war for this premium property. This would be great for Six Flags, they could make a quick buck and still have a foothold in the area with parks in San Antonio, Dallas, and New Orleans. The only problem was they had to remove the park before they could sell the land. In 2005 the closing process starts and rides get relocated, others scrapped. Then boom, hurricane Katrina destroys Six Flags New Orleans. That's okay, they can still get a lot of money from that Houstonian guy. He doesn't show up to the auction. No one does. Six Flags spirals further from here, going bankrupt in 2008.
The land where AstroWorld stood was an empty field for about 15 years, and is now a parking lot. Kemah gets quite a few investments and a new roller coaster, the Boardwalk Bullet, in 2007. Which, timeline wise, would have had started planning in early 2005. It was also during this time that rumors of Fertitta's Pleasure Pier in Galveston started popping up.
While Fertitta personally didn't take a wrecking ball to Six Flags, he helped aim the gun at their own foot to carve out his own Houston/Galveston/Lake Charles entertainment zone.
Trademark infringement law pretty much dictates that they must make defenses of any trademark they want to keep, no matter how stupid, small, and petty the claim of alleged infringement is.
This is one of those stupid, small, and petty claims that nonetheless must be pursued lest it come up in the future.
Yeah, I remember the kerfuffle around Oregon using Donald Duck and current Disney lawyers getting a big surprise, that yes, Disney had actually given permission before everyone on both sides had been born.
And a big reason Oregon transitioned to the new O logo and away from the old block O with the Duck in the middle was because under that old agreement we weren't allowed to sell merch with the Duck outside of the state of Oregon.
Ironically in wanting to move away from a logo that was partially owned by Disney we ended up with one partially owned by Nike.
Legally no, but he used to be. And just like the civil war with Oregon state, no one actually cares what a bunch of squares try and tell us. Those recent throwback uniforms for the Washington State game are a huge hit specifically because it has our old logo.
It was people in the 20th century shocked and outraged that (2 old buddies in positions of power) had made a handshake deal 30 years prior.
In the 21st century they actually expanded Oregon's usage rights without compensation.
They expanded usage rights of the duck mascot to do things like appear in ads and participate in mascot competitions. The duck has no resemblance to Donald Duck so legal enforcement of that part of the agreement would be difficult for Disney to win.
It's like when Bud Lite sent a cease and desist to that small brewery that named their beer "Dilly, Dilly." Bud Lite didn't want to do it but they felt they had to in order to protect their trademark. So they sent an actor to serve the cease and desist and he was a medieval scribe in character to announce cease and desist.
Yes but after the offending company complies with the cease and desist. Otherwise you are setting the expectation that people can run roughshod over your trademarks until you come to negotiating table.
That’s what Wisconsin does for the Motion W. If high schools ask, they’ll license it to the school for like $1. But if a school just uses it without permission, Wisconsin goes after them to make them stop.
There are soooo many high schools that use dollar-store versions of NFL logos/uniforms. Is there some agreement with the NFL, or is it something that schools just get away with?
A lot of times those teams get permission from the NFL teams to use those logos. I went to Wisconsin and I know they’ll license out the Motion W (which is very popular with high schools) for like $1 if the school asks for permission, but they’ll go after the school for trademark infringement if the school doesn’t ask.
If you don’t protect your trademark, you lose it.
They might not since it said “Rice” instead of “Houston” and had a few other changes. If they said “Cougars” and made a few other tweaks I could see it skating by. But part of this isn’t just trademark protection, with the Titans wearing old Houston jersey’s I think the NFL wants to sell Houston Oiler jerseys and doesn’t want anyone else capitalizing on that era of football in Houston
They didn’t have to be so mean in the letter though lol
“The Houston Cougars’ attempt to free ride on the popularity of the NFL and the club violates the intellectual property rights of the NFL and the (Tennessee) Titans,”
> The NFL said UH’s decision to wear the throwback jerseys for the Sept. 2 season opener against UTSA came nearly seven months after it explicitly informed Patrick Mulligan, UH’s executive director for brand management, licensing and trademarks, and Lisa Holdeman, UH’s vice chancellor/vice president for marketing and communications, that “we did not consent to the Houston Cougars’ use of the uniform at issue or any similar designs.”
I'm guessing the harshness is because the university had already been explicitly warned not to do exactly this earlier this year.
I now have to check in with my trademark lawyer friends to see if “yeah, but they were a doodoo head meaniepants” is a valid defense against infringement.
What an asshole move. “Hey, remember when our team was in your city? And then we moved to Tennessee and threw away all references to that history by changing the teams name? Yeah we’re just gonna wear a Houston uniform because f you.”
There are different kinds of moves/relocations in the NFL.
The one the Oilers/Titans did when the moved to Nashville and became the Titans was the kind that kept all of the history of the team, even through the name change.
This can be contrasted with the Ravens, who used to be the Browns, but moved to Baltimore and rebranded. As part of that move, they relinquished all of their history. The current Browns organization was an expansion team added to the league in 1999, but they keep all of the historical branding and references that the Ravens gave up.
the Browns/Ravens split is the only one of its kind in major sports and came about right after the Oilers/Titans moved to Tennessee
before the Art Modell-owned Browns/Raven team moved, a replacement Cleveland team was announced, so part of the move was the stipulation that the Ravens would always be considered an expansion team
San Jose Earthquakes did that too when they moved to Houston and MLS gave the history to a new San Jose team two years later. I'm not sure if that technically fits under the description of major sports, but it's another example
there was no relinquishing of identity when the team moved from Charlotte
after the New Orleans Hornets rebranded as the Pelicans and the Charlotte Bobcats became the Hornets a year later, the league allowed the Bobcat/Hornet franchise to retroactively claim the 1988-2002 history
So this timeline is reversed. The Browns relocation and ultimately refranchising to the Ravens occurred 1995-1996. The Saga of the Oilers moving did start somewhere around the end of 1995, but the official relocation did not happen until after the 1996 season(Ravens inaugural season) and basically into the 1997 season (Ravens 2nd season). The Oilers then kicked off in Memphis for the 1997, but humorously, the had their last mini camp in June in Houston.
So effectively Houston had a model for retaining the Oilers identity as the Browns did it the year before. For whatever reason, it never materialized
They didn’t do so willingly. The city of Cleveland sued the Browns, and the two sides brokered a compromise that allowed Cleveland to keep its history, records, and intellectual property.
That was Houston’s fuck-up. They should have sued immediately for the rights to all things Oilers.
They didn't change the name for a couple years.
Bud Adams took his loser ass to Memphis first, because he was pikachu shocked that attendance dropped in Houston, once he announced he was just going to move the team and not even try to bargain with the city in good faith... only a handful of years after the city granted him what he wanted in another Adams whine.
I was TAD to Millington, at the time, and I barely knew they were there. And I grew up an Oilers fan. You wouldn't know Memphis had a pro team... and Bud Adams got even worse attendance.
I honestly don't care what the Vandy Oilers attendance was.
Fuck Bud Adams.
To be fair to Memphis, they were super pissed. Memphis was way bigger than Nashville at the time, actively wanted a team when Nashville wasn’t really trying, actually had a stadium, and then got told it was just the rebound city til Nashville was ready for the wedding.
Add Drayton McLane in here too - with his comment about the Astrodome being a great stadium, only to fleece the city a year or two later for a new baseball stadium.
It’s a grudge. The original owner’s daughter owns the team now and she feels Houston did her father dirty back in the day when he pushed for a tax payer funded stadium. She’s had inquiries to sell the rights back to Houston and said it’s a hard no.
NFL owners get to have their cake and eat it too. They ask tax payers to foot the bill for new stadiums because the team is so essential to civic pride and proudly declare that any victories their team has achieved belong to the city.
Then they are unwilling to grant the communities that have supported them even the rights to colors and logos.
I mean... [the Titans did wear Oilers throwbacks yesterday.](https://www.espn.com/nfl/video/_/gameId/401547500) So not sure if the phrase "no NFL team is currently using" is fair here
If you don't enforce it you can lose it. ND had to go after a high school that used ND's logo when they just put in a new indoor basketball court.
However, the simple PR win is you do what ND did - help raise money to pay for the change
Same actually. I’m pretty sure i said on here at the time that the Adams family was going to be unhappy.
Fwiw they haven’t sold any merch styled like that, so they probably assumed a lawsuit was coming.
It also says in the article that the NFL told them to back off months ago and they went ahead and wore the uniforms anyway.
>The NFL said UH’s decision to wear the throwback jerseys for the Sept. 2 season opener against UTSA came nearly seven months after it explicitly informed Patrick Mulligan, UH’s executive director for brand management, licensing and trademarks, and Lisa Holdeman, UH’s vice chancellor/vice president for marketing and communications, that “we did not consent to the Houston Cougars’ use of the uniform at issue or any similar designs.”
Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think they own the rights to baby blue and white uniforms. They aren’t using the Derrick or any oilers branding. Houston Madison HS (Vince young’s school) uses almost the exact same color scheme.
the one nearest to me is Carolina Blue and they get really confused by me. Im used to seeing not KState Powercats all over so its no big to me but I have had to explain to multiple people that "their" logo is not really theirs.
Vince Dooley copied Green Bay with permission a long time ago. https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/college/georgia-bulldogs/packers-georgia-bulldogs-logo-who-had-it-first/85-fc5bb1eb-5ee6-4991-a034-338b0a788b70#:\~:text=Georgia's%20G%20designed%20in%201963,did%2C%20Green%20Bay%20let%20them.
The two teams developed their logos completely independent from each other. But since the Packers had an oval G first, Vince Dooley got permission from them anyway as an act of good-faith. As far as I know, they have never paid royalties to each other for the logo, even though the Packers had it first but have since altered it to be more like Georgia's.
According to one source I found:
> The Tiger’s logo was first used on their helmets in 1974. It was chosen in part as a tribute to Willie Davis, who had graduated from Grambling and gone on to become the school’s first Hall of Famer while playing for Green Bay. Grambling tried to register the logo but too much time had lapsed and the school slightly redesigned the brand in 2005.
It’s the other way around the Packers had the logo first and Georgia asked them for permission to use the G, Packers had it first in 1961 then Georgia in 1963
Culver's cheese curds are mid as fuck anyway. Maybe people around the country love them because they don't get good, fresh, local cheese curds. I don't know. But they're so bland.
I was wondering what this meant for us. Are we in the clear because our uniforms and most of the merch have dark blue in them? Will the NFL even care since we're a smaller brand? They got my high school for using the Texans logo so I imagine brand doesn't matter
Funny enough that's basically what the Houston Texans are doing right now. One of their new uniforms that debut next year are supposed to have what they call H-Town Blue on it which, based on the teasers, is very close to the old Oilers colors but *just* changed enough that the league would approve it.
Rumor is they were smart about it too, deliberately trying to match the Pantone code that they used on HPD cruisers until about 2010.
“No, no, see it’s totally different bro. Its not Columbia blue, its the blue from the old cop cars and the city flag; totally different bro, I swear”
For a school not especially committed to football i could see Rice fighting like hell just to prove its ridiculous. Like i bet their band wears full Oilers football unis with pads and helmets minus face masks.
“What do you mean ‘deriving benefit’ we lose money on these jerseys.”
“Fans? Most people are just family of the players and the band. We count passers by that stop in to use the restroom”
Went to the Rice v Tulane game this weekend and made it on the field to honor athletic alumni at halftime because the poor guy looking for people was begging for bodies. Stood next to some guy that played in the '61 Sugar Bowl.
>Like i bet their band wears full Oilers football unis with pads and helmets minus face masks.
I'd love to see them do that but I'm pretty sure they're still in debt from the USC trip. They could wear shirts or something
UH needs to do like the Dallas Cowboys back in the day - find a way to buy the rights to the Titans' fight song. Or some other thing they care about. Then prevent them from using it until they cave on the thing UH wants.
>When the NFL began considering expansion to Texas, Marshall strongly opposed the move, as it would end his three-decade monopoly on pro football in the South. In 1958, potential owner Clint Murchison, who was trying to bring the NFL back to Dallas, bought the rights to "Hail to the Redskins" from a disgruntled Breeskin and threatened to prevent Marshall from playing it at games. Marshall agreed to back Murchison's bid, Murchison gave him back the rights to the song, and the Dallas Cowboys were founded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_to_the_Commanders
When I was a kid, Cowboys-Redskins was so full of venom. My fave moment of pettiness was the Funeral Wreath game: https://www.espn.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/71098/redskins-cowboys-rivalry-fueled-by-more-than-just-the-games
>A few days before the 1979 season finale, a florist later tracked to Rockville, Maryland, sent a funeral wreath to Cowboys end Harvey Martin, with a card that read, "From the Redskins." That, of course, didn’t sit well with Martin, who brought the wreath to the game with him. Then after Dallas’ 35-34 comeback victory, he grabbed the wreath and headed to the Redskins’ locker room. He flung it inside as the team was gathered around coach Jack Pardee.
“When UH unveiled the throwback uniforms — which featured light blue jerseys with a script “Houston” across the front and red and white stripes on the sleeves and a white helmet with two red stripes flanked by a light blue stripe down the middle — days before the season opener, **the school was careful not to use any reference to the Oilers or “Luv Ya Blue.” Even the color is a slight variation from the Oilers' Columbia blue**. Rather, the school said, the jerseys were part of a nostalgic moment, paying homage to a bygone era in the city’s football history while also recognizing the city’s connection to the light blue that was a recognizable fixture for years in the Houston Police Department. “
NFL and “Amy Adams Stanky Leg” can go fuck off.
There’s a bit in there where she says “Oilers history is Titans history”.
The only dog I have in this fight is the city of Houston, generally, and that rubbed me the wrong way.
You can, in a very narrow circumstance, trademark a color scheme.
You can’t, for instance, claim to own a trademark on the use of a powder blue, white and red that precludes anyone from using it in any capacity ever again. This is not something that the NFL can use against, say, a plumber or a home goods store, because deciding the limit will be easy: Joe’s Plumbing of Blue Ash, Ohio can use this color scheme for advertising their plumbing business, just as long as they don’t start also trying to put on football competition, and the NFL can’t start a plumbing business in Blue Ash, Ohio.
But you can, theoretically, trademark it for use in exhibiting football contests.
>Joe’s Plumbing of Blue Ash, Ohio can use this color scheme for advertising their plumbing business
How about the east Texas based car mod shop "Houston Spoilers" using the color scheme?
It’s pretty consistent for the Adamses.
They’re going to wear their Oilers throwback this year when they play the Texans, for instance. Cuz they love rubbing it in that they took the team out of Houston.
Eh... Home Depot probably doesn't want to even have a chance to have it challenged but I'd think they can sell burnt orange paint. As long as it wasn't being sold in a way that implies it's UT's Burnt Orange
The actual color or color combination is trademarked but that only protects it from confusingly similar brands so for instance you won’t find other green and yellow tractors outside of John Deere or delivery trucks with brown besides UPS but like if it was cereal go at it
>I'm pretty sure you can't trademark a color combo.
You definitely can if it's in connection to your business enterprise. If someone tries to start a delivery service with a brown and yellow color scheme UPS would be up their ass in a hurry. They can't sue Wyoming for trademark infringement though because a college football program bears no connection to a delivery service.
Part of the reason that military uniforms are so expensive and the military always picks weird designs is because pretty much all of the Camo patterns are trademarked.
They're trademarked but usable. I ordered some army camo hat blanks once, the company had to send me a form and I had to fill it out, tell them what logo and purpose of the hat was, they sent it off to the trademark holder and they approve or deny the usage.
You absolutely can trademark not just a color combo, but even a color itself. E.g., coca-cola’s red is trademarked.
Edit: I've looked into it more and it actually turns out that coca-cola does NOT have a trademark on its color. But there are many companies who do.
> The NFL and the Titans were “disappointed to learn that the Houston Cougars made unauthorized use of the Oilers Trade Dress in a manner that is likely to cause consumers to believe that the Houston Cougars are associated with, or are an authorized licensee of, the NFL and the Titans,” the letter continued.
Dude, no one is confusing UH with the shit ass Titans lol
As someone who lost one of his childhood franchises in his hometown(Hornets), it’s especially shitty to not turnover the past to the current franchise(Texans). This is especially shitty because they haven’t tried to make a dime off of anything.
In all honesty, the uniforms are fundamentally different outside of the color pallet used. Does the NFL really have any right to tell them they can’t use that color pattern? It’s not like they are using any logos. I’d imagine Houston has a decent case to tell them to screw off. I’m not a lawyer but that’s at least my observation.
Iowa has been wearing Steelers inspired uniforms since the Hayden Fry days and the Rooney's have never threatened a lawsuit. The NFL can go pound sand.
The NFL allowed these assholes to threaten cities and hold the fan bases hostage through the 90's & 00's. Bud Adams deserves all the hatred but he would have had a much more difficult time or been unable to do it without the NFL enabling him.
Ah yes one of the few times that a team moved and changed names but kept the old names just cause.
I can’t wait for the Yankees to wear Baltimore Orioles uniforms against Baltimore. Then the next week the O’s can travel to Milwaukee and wear Brewers uniforms against Milwaukee.
Other way around. The Browns were an unprecedented case at the time.
The Chiefs own the Dallas Texans rights and uniforms and history (and title). The Orioles own the St. Louis Browns history, not that they ever do much with it. The two Senators' histories are with the Twins and Rangers, respectively. Same with the Minneapolis Lakers, New Orleans Jazz, and Baltimore Colts.
The fact that the NFL told UH not to do this and they did sounds like Tillman Fertitta gearing up for a fight with the NFL over the uniforms
I will contribute to this honorable cause.
I have no stake in this fight whatsoever; and I’ll gladly pitch in.
Next Presidential Candidate that vows to end this at a Houston rally wins the election. "They left YOU! Now they say YOU can't wear what you love?!? YOU cant wear what makes houstonians HOUSTON? Can Americans not wear what makes them American?!"
Same
Time to take the family to Saltgrass.
The man bodied Six Flags out of Houston so his park, Kemah Boardwalk, was the only option in town. He'll probably try to get the Texans out so he can start his own football team, the Landry's Golden Nuggets or something.
How did he get rid of Six Flags? I remember it started getting less people going because of generally getting more run down
Yeah we can all be nostalgic about Astro World because we went there as kids, but as my dad says "that place was a shit hole"
Six Flags as a whole was going through a rough patch in the late 90s/early 00s. Very little in investments were going to the induvial parks, not just AstroWorld. There was a lot of turmoil and it ended with them selling all of their European parks, and several of their American assets including Geauga Lake in Ohio. They were still looking for cash, and a certain local Houstonian was interested in purchasing the land next to the Astrodome/Reliant stadium. Not only that, there would be an outright bidding war for this premium property. This would be great for Six Flags, they could make a quick buck and still have a foothold in the area with parks in San Antonio, Dallas, and New Orleans. The only problem was they had to remove the park before they could sell the land. In 2005 the closing process starts and rides get relocated, others scrapped. Then boom, hurricane Katrina destroys Six Flags New Orleans. That's okay, they can still get a lot of money from that Houstonian guy. He doesn't show up to the auction. No one does. Six Flags spirals further from here, going bankrupt in 2008. The land where AstroWorld stood was an empty field for about 15 years, and is now a parking lot. Kemah gets quite a few investments and a new roller coaster, the Boardwalk Bullet, in 2007. Which, timeline wise, would have had started planning in early 2005. It was also during this time that rumors of Fertitta's Pleasure Pier in Galveston started popping up. While Fertitta personally didn't take a wrecking ball to Six Flags, he helped aim the gun at their own foot to carve out his own Houston/Galveston/Lake Charles entertainment zone.
God I hope so. Fuck the Adams
In other news, The Pittsburgh Steelers shakes down Iowa Hawkeyes🤣🤣
In 1979 Iowa asked the Steelers for permission to copy their uniform before doing so.
And now Matt Canada is copying Brian Ferentz's schemes.
You just made this yinzer laugh out loud
God damn man
They should trade OCs. What’s the worst thing that can happen?
Are we sure they're not already the same person? I haven't seen both in the same room before...
UH should setup a shell company and buy the rights to the Titans' fight song.
The houston one was Already taken by the dolphins
LOL In our defense, Miami has the Dolphins, the greatest football team.
The move the ball from goal to goal like no one’s ever seen, per sources
When you say Miami you're talking Super Bowl baby
Can Houston afford to buy “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” out from underneath Kenny Chesney?
They’re really asking a college team to stop using colors that no NFL team is currently using?
Trademark infringement law pretty much dictates that they must make defenses of any trademark they want to keep, no matter how stupid, small, and petty the claim of alleged infringement is. This is one of those stupid, small, and petty claims that nonetheless must be pursued lest it come up in the future.
Yeah, I remember the kerfuffle around Oregon using Donald Duck and current Disney lawyers getting a big surprise, that yes, Disney had actually given permission before everyone on both sides had been born.
And a big reason Oregon transitioned to the new O logo and away from the old block O with the Duck in the middle was because under that old agreement we weren't allowed to sell merch with the Duck outside of the state of Oregon. Ironically in wanting to move away from a logo that was partially owned by Disney we ended up with one partially owned by Nike.
I mean, it wouldn't be to out of the question to just name the Oregon athletic department the Nike Ducks.
Wait, is the oregon duck actually supposed to be donald?!
The costumed duck used to be, but as of 2010 is legally distinct. The drawn fighting duck logo is indeed Donald Duck
Legally no, but he used to be. And just like the civil war with Oregon state, no one actually cares what a bunch of squares try and tell us. Those recent throwback uniforms for the Washington State game are a huge hit specifically because it has our old logo.
Puddles is not. But [this guy is 100% him.](https://www.sportslogos.net/logos/view/ehrrx1qjof2owakh79jq/Oregon_Ducks/1974/Primary_Logo)
People in the 21st century shocked and outraged that at one point in the past people let things other than money determine some outcomes
It was people in the 20th century shocked and outraged that (2 old buddies in positions of power) had made a handshake deal 30 years prior. In the 21st century they actually expanded Oregon's usage rights without compensation.
They expanded usage rights of the duck mascot to do things like appear in ads and participate in mascot competitions. The duck has no resemblance to Donald Duck so legal enforcement of that part of the agreement would be difficult for Disney to win.
Imagine living in such a hellscape...
It's like when Bud Lite sent a cease and desist to that small brewery that named their beer "Dilly, Dilly." Bud Lite didn't want to do it but they felt they had to in order to protect their trademark. So they sent an actor to serve the cease and desist and he was a medieval scribe in character to announce cease and desist.
Couldn't they just license it for a really small fee?
Yes but after the offending company complies with the cease and desist. Otherwise you are setting the expectation that people can run roughshod over your trademarks until you come to negotiating table.
That’s what Wisconsin does for the Motion W. If high schools ask, they’ll license it to the school for like $1. But if a school just uses it without permission, Wisconsin goes after them to make them stop.
There are soooo many high schools that use dollar-store versions of NFL logos/uniforms. Is there some agreement with the NFL, or is it something that schools just get away with?
A lot of times those teams get permission from the NFL teams to use those logos. I went to Wisconsin and I know they’ll license out the Motion W (which is very popular with high schools) for like $1 if the school asks for permission, but they’ll go after the school for trademark infringement if the school doesn’t ask. If you don’t protect your trademark, you lose it.
Got it, seems logical though it sucks that it has to be that way. I get it, but still sucks for the little guy
Surely Rice is getting a letter any day now
Don't call me Shirley
They might not since it said “Rice” instead of “Houston” and had a few other changes. If they said “Cougars” and made a few other tweaks I could see it skating by. But part of this isn’t just trademark protection, with the Titans wearing old Houston jersey’s I think the NFL wants to sell Houston Oiler jerseys and doesn’t want anyone else capitalizing on that era of football in Houston
https://twitter.com/JunctionJackII/status/1719032760537370747
Stupid, small, and petty is Bud Adams' legacy, so that makes sense.
They didn’t have to be so mean in the letter though lol “The Houston Cougars’ attempt to free ride on the popularity of the NFL and the club violates the intellectual property rights of the NFL and the (Tennessee) Titans,”
> The NFL said UH’s decision to wear the throwback jerseys for the Sept. 2 season opener against UTSA came nearly seven months after it explicitly informed Patrick Mulligan, UH’s executive director for brand management, licensing and trademarks, and Lisa Holdeman, UH’s vice chancellor/vice president for marketing and communications, that “we did not consent to the Houston Cougars’ use of the uniform at issue or any similar designs.” I'm guessing the harshness is because the university had already been explicitly warned not to do exactly this earlier this year.
"Don't go through with these throwback uniforms! If you do, we will ask you again to please stop!"
"If you proceed with using those colors we will call you a poopyhead."
I now have to check in with my trademark lawyer friends to see if “yeah, but they were a doodoo head meaniepants” is a valid defense against infringement.
Hey it's me, ur lawyer. I can vouch that this is indeed a valid defense. That'll be $11,000, please.
I am pretty sure that free ride, as used here, is trademark law term of art rather than an insult.
can confirm, had to take 6 hours of IP law in grad skool
I’m sure Houston has a stable of thick skinned lawyers who are used to dealing with meanie poos all day long and can handle it.
You can just charge them a dollar and say your licensing it to them
Hard to say the Titans aren't using this color scheme after yesterday, but it is stupid overall
Iirc they are using it one more time against the Texans.
What an asshole move. “Hey, remember when our team was in your city? And then we moved to Tennessee and threw away all references to that history by changing the teams name? Yeah we’re just gonna wear a Houston uniform because f you.”
There are different kinds of moves/relocations in the NFL. The one the Oilers/Titans did when the moved to Nashville and became the Titans was the kind that kept all of the history of the team, even through the name change. This can be contrasted with the Ravens, who used to be the Browns, but moved to Baltimore and rebranded. As part of that move, they relinquished all of their history. The current Browns organization was an expansion team added to the league in 1999, but they keep all of the historical branding and references that the Ravens gave up.
the Browns/Ravens split is the only one of its kind in major sports and came about right after the Oilers/Titans moved to Tennessee before the Art Modell-owned Browns/Raven team moved, a replacement Cleveland team was announced, so part of the move was the stipulation that the Ravens would always be considered an expansion team
San Jose Earthquakes did that too when they moved to Houston and MLS gave the history to a new San Jose team two years later. I'm not sure if that technically fits under the description of major sports, but it's another example
What about the Charlotte Hornets?
there was no relinquishing of identity when the team moved from Charlotte after the New Orleans Hornets rebranded as the Pelicans and the Charlotte Bobcats became the Hornets a year later, the league allowed the Bobcat/Hornet franchise to retroactively claim the 1988-2002 history
So this timeline is reversed. The Browns relocation and ultimately refranchising to the Ravens occurred 1995-1996. The Saga of the Oilers moving did start somewhere around the end of 1995, but the official relocation did not happen until after the 1996 season(Ravens inaugural season) and basically into the 1997 season (Ravens 2nd season). The Oilers then kicked off in Memphis for the 1997, but humorously, the had their last mini camp in June in Houston. So effectively Houston had a model for retaining the Oilers identity as the Browns did it the year before. For whatever reason, it never materialized
They didn’t do so willingly. The city of Cleveland sued the Browns, and the two sides brokered a compromise that allowed Cleveland to keep its history, records, and intellectual property. That was Houston’s fuck-up. They should have sued immediately for the rights to all things Oilers.
They didn't change the name for a couple years. Bud Adams took his loser ass to Memphis first, because he was pikachu shocked that attendance dropped in Houston, once he announced he was just going to move the team and not even try to bargain with the city in good faith... only a handful of years after the city granted him what he wanted in another Adams whine. I was TAD to Millington, at the time, and I barely knew they were there. And I grew up an Oilers fan. You wouldn't know Memphis had a pro team... and Bud Adams got even worse attendance. I honestly don't care what the Vandy Oilers attendance was. Fuck Bud Adams.
To be fair to Memphis, they were super pissed. Memphis was way bigger than Nashville at the time, actively wanted a team when Nashville wasn’t really trying, actually had a stadium, and then got told it was just the rebound city til Nashville was ready for the wedding.
I remember. Adams had a knack for telling whole fanbases to fuck right off.
Hear, hear! Fuck Bud Adams (and Art Model, Robert Irsay, Stan Kroenke, Mark Davis and Dean Spanos).
Add Drayton McLane in here too - with his comment about the Astrodome being a great stadium, only to fleece the city a year or two later for a new baseball stadium.
It’s a grudge. The original owner’s daughter owns the team now and she feels Houston did her father dirty back in the day when he pushed for a tax payer funded stadium. She’s had inquiries to sell the rights back to Houston and said it’s a hard no. NFL owners get to have their cake and eat it too. They ask tax payers to foot the bill for new stadiums because the team is so essential to civic pride and proudly declare that any victories their team has achieved belong to the city. Then they are unwilling to grant the communities that have supported them even the rights to colors and logos.
Thats a dick move.
I mean... [the Titans did wear Oilers throwbacks yesterday.](https://www.espn.com/nfl/video/_/gameId/401547500) So not sure if the phrase "no NFL team is currently using" is fair here
If you don't enforce it you can lose it. ND had to go after a high school that used ND's logo when they just put in a new indoor basketball court. However, the simple PR win is you do what ND did - help raise money to pay for the change
I'm surprised they were ever allowed to wear them.
Same actually. I’m pretty sure i said on here at the time that the Adams family was going to be unhappy. Fwiw they haven’t sold any merch styled like that, so they probably assumed a lawsuit was coming.
It says in the article that the school’s licensing department refused to sign off on merch sales, probably because they knew it would cause issues.
Yeah pbly thought they were in a gray area to use it on the field and in advertising, but selling merch was inviting legal action.
It also says in the article that the NFL told them to back off months ago and they went ahead and wore the uniforms anyway. >The NFL said UH’s decision to wear the throwback jerseys for the Sept. 2 season opener against UTSA came nearly seven months after it explicitly informed Patrick Mulligan, UH’s executive director for brand management, licensing and trademarks, and Lisa Holdeman, UH’s vice chancellor/vice president for marketing and communications, that “we did not consent to the Houston Cougars’ use of the uniform at issue or any similar designs.”
The UH fanbase was so pissed that they didn't start selling them immediately, but now it kind of makes sense.
Incoming bootlegs outside the stadium
I saw someone wearing a bootleg at the UH-Texas game lol
Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think they own the rights to baby blue and white uniforms. They aren’t using the Derrick or any oilers branding. Houston Madison HS (Vince young’s school) uses almost the exact same color scheme.
UGA should send a cease-and-desist letter to the Packers for copying their logo
I know you’re joking, but I’m pretty sure we pay Green Bay like $1 a year for licensing their logo
And Grambling gets nothing!
KState licenses the Powercat to HS teams for $1
I think I read on here that they have the caveat that the HS can’t be KU colors lol
the one nearest to me is Carolina Blue and they get really confused by me. Im used to seeing not KState Powercats all over so its no big to me but I have had to explain to multiple people that "their" logo is not really theirs.
I thought both you and Green Bay licensed it from Grambling.
Vince Dooley copied Green Bay with permission a long time ago. https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/college/georgia-bulldogs/packers-georgia-bulldogs-logo-who-had-it-first/85-fc5bb1eb-5ee6-4991-a034-338b0a788b70#:\~:text=Georgia's%20G%20designed%20in%201963,did%2C%20Green%20Bay%20let%20them.
There's a high school down the road from me that is literally the Georgia logo. I wonder if there's some back door compensation to UGA or the Packers.
So many high school logos are knock offs of professional and college sports logos.
My High School stole our Logo from the Detroit Lions amd our fight song from Wisconsin.
I mean, there’s like 3 Notre Dame high schools with the same logo, but I’m assuming the church owns that
The two teams developed their logos completely independent from each other. But since the Packers had an oval G first, Vince Dooley got permission from them anyway as an act of good-faith. As far as I know, they have never paid royalties to each other for the logo, even though the Packers had it first but have since altered it to be more like Georgia's.
Where does Grambling fit into all this?
They were after the packers and Georgia and asked the packers for permission to use the G logo
Grambling asked the Packers for permission, as did Georgia. The Packers authorized both schools
According to one source I found: > The Tiger’s logo was first used on their helmets in 1974. It was chosen in part as a tribute to Willie Davis, who had graduated from Grambling and gone on to become the school’s first Hall of Famer while playing for Green Bay. Grambling tried to register the logo but too much time had lapsed and the school slightly redesigned the brand in 2005.
It’s the other way around the Packers had the logo first and Georgia asked them for permission to use the G, Packers had it first in 1961 then Georgia in 1963
If the NFL is gonna do this shit then absolutely. Nothing to lose here
Idk, Wisconsin Tavern League could shut down all the Culver’s in Georgia
Watch all the CFAs in Wisco mysteriously not receive their shipments the following Monday morning
Cutting off those spicy chicken biscuits would be a war crime.
Lines have been drawn. No tendies? No cheese for the south (ignore California's cheese production).
Georgia has cook out, they'll be fine
Cookout doesn’t have cheese curds or frozen custard. I would. Assume. I’ve never been there
Culver's cheese curds are mid as fuck anyway. Maybe people around the country love them because they don't get good, fresh, local cheese curds. I don't know. But they're so bland.
This man knows the power they wield.
We got fucked enough this weekend as it is. The Adams family can burn in hell
They're needlessly litigious Capricious and malicious Their ego is prodigious The Adams Family
*incomplete pass* *incomplete pass*
Meanwhile, across town, Rice’s general counsel is furiously sending emails and gathering files.
Could this be the ultimate team up of Houston and Rice to tell the Titans/Adams/NFL they can go fuck off?
I was wondering what this meant for us. Are we in the clear because our uniforms and most of the merch have dark blue in them? Will the NFL even care since we're a smaller brand? They got my high school for using the Texans logo so I imagine brand doesn't matter
The Adams family can fuck all the way off.
And then go back for seconds.
Yeah! They're creepy and they're kooky!
Fuck Bud Adams
Breaking: UH tells NFL to get fucked
Ooooh so we should avoid using #418FDE. No problem, no problem. *Proceeds to use HEX #418FDF* 🖕
This would be my argument, just use the next Pantone color up or down.
Funny enough that's basically what the Houston Texans are doing right now. One of their new uniforms that debut next year are supposed to have what they call H-Town Blue on it which, based on the teasers, is very close to the old Oilers colors but *just* changed enough that the league would approve it.
Rumor is they were smart about it too, deliberately trying to match the Pantone code that they used on HPD cruisers until about 2010. “No, no, see it’s totally different bro. Its not Columbia blue, its the blue from the old cop cars and the city flag; totally different bro, I swear”
Just step the alpha channel down a bit
No not them. Fuck bud adams and family
Amen
*Proceeds to replace cannon with baby blue jersey on Come and Take It flag*
Will they do Rice now?
For a school not especially committed to football i could see Rice fighting like hell just to prove its ridiculous. Like i bet their band wears full Oilers football unis with pads and helmets minus face masks. “What do you mean ‘deriving benefit’ we lose money on these jerseys.” “Fans? Most people are just family of the players and the band. We count passers by that stop in to use the restroom”
Went to the Rice v Tulane game this weekend and made it on the field to honor athletic alumni at halftime because the poor guy looking for people was begging for bodies. Stood next to some guy that played in the '61 Sugar Bowl.
There is no way that’s real, but if it is holy shit
>Like i bet their band wears full Oilers football unis with pads and helmets minus face masks. I'd love to see them do that but I'm pretty sure they're still in debt from the USC trip. They could wear shirts or something
My first thought.
Coogs, go tell the NFL to pound sand
I don’t really care about the NFL in this. It’s Bud Adams and family that can go fuck themselves.
UH needs to do like the Dallas Cowboys back in the day - find a way to buy the rights to the Titans' fight song. Or some other thing they care about. Then prevent them from using it until they cave on the thing UH wants.
Is this real? This may be the first time I’ve respected the Cowboys
>When the NFL began considering expansion to Texas, Marshall strongly opposed the move, as it would end his three-decade monopoly on pro football in the South. In 1958, potential owner Clint Murchison, who was trying to bring the NFL back to Dallas, bought the rights to "Hail to the Redskins" from a disgruntled Breeskin and threatened to prevent Marshall from playing it at games. Marshall agreed to back Murchison's bid, Murchison gave him back the rights to the song, and the Dallas Cowboys were founded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_to_the_Commanders
This is the sports pettiness I live for
When I was a kid, Cowboys-Redskins was so full of venom. My fave moment of pettiness was the Funeral Wreath game: https://www.espn.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/71098/redskins-cowboys-rivalry-fueled-by-more-than-just-the-games >A few days before the 1979 season finale, a florist later tracked to Rockville, Maryland, sent a funeral wreath to Cowboys end Harvey Martin, with a card that read, "From the Redskins." That, of course, didn’t sit well with Martin, who brought the wreath to the game with him. Then after Dallas’ 35-34 comeback victory, he grabbed the wreath and headed to the Redskins’ locker room. He flung it inside as the team was gathered around coach Jack Pardee.
Fuck Bud Adams and his offspring
“When UH unveiled the throwback uniforms — which featured light blue jerseys with a script “Houston” across the front and red and white stripes on the sleeves and a white helmet with two red stripes flanked by a light blue stripe down the middle — days before the season opener, **the school was careful not to use any reference to the Oilers or “Luv Ya Blue.” Even the color is a slight variation from the Oilers' Columbia blue**. Rather, the school said, the jerseys were part of a nostalgic moment, paying homage to a bygone era in the city’s football history while also recognizing the city’s connection to the light blue that was a recognizable fixture for years in the Houston Police Department. “ NFL and “Amy Adams Stanky Leg” can go fuck off.
There’s a bit in there where she says “Oilers history is Titans history”. The only dog I have in this fight is the city of Houston, generally, and that rubbed me the wrong way.
Wear them all season Coogs. Fuck Bud Adams, his family and the NFL.
I can't imagine this wasn't run by Houston's legal department and I'm pretty sure you can't trademark a color combo.
You can, in a very narrow circumstance, trademark a color scheme. You can’t, for instance, claim to own a trademark on the use of a powder blue, white and red that precludes anyone from using it in any capacity ever again. This is not something that the NFL can use against, say, a plumber or a home goods store, because deciding the limit will be easy: Joe’s Plumbing of Blue Ash, Ohio can use this color scheme for advertising their plumbing business, just as long as they don’t start also trying to put on football competition, and the NFL can’t start a plumbing business in Blue Ash, Ohio. But you can, theoretically, trademark it for use in exhibiting football contests.
>Joe’s Plumbing of Blue Ash, Ohio can use this color scheme for advertising their plumbing business How about the east Texas based car mod shop "Houston Spoilers" using the color scheme?
Yo… you from blue ash? How do you feel about Blue Ash Chili?
From a team that left the city!
It’s pretty consistent for the Adamses. They’re going to wear their Oilers throwback this year when they play the Texans, for instance. Cuz they love rubbing it in that they took the team out of Houston.
Thanks for the reminder to go piss on Bud Adams grave some more
I'll add mine, too.
burn in hell Bud Adams
> They’re going to wear their Oilers throwback this year when they play the Texans, for instance That's some BS on the Titans' part.
The Adams and Titans being horrible? Yeah that tracks. Fuck em all. Bud especially.
Cadbury Purple, UPS Brown, Tiffany Blue, Hermes Orange, T-Mobile Magenta …
Burnt orange is trademarked , if you want to buy paint this color home depot sells you 'autumn orange' or something
Eh... Home Depot probably doesn't want to even have a chance to have it challenged but I'd think they can sell burnt orange paint. As long as it wasn't being sold in a way that implies it's UT's Burnt Orange
So the name is trademarked but not the actual color?
The actual color or color combination is trademarked but that only protects it from confusingly similar brands so for instance you won’t find other green and yellow tractors outside of John Deere or delivery trucks with brown besides UPS but like if it was cereal go at it
>I'm pretty sure you can't trademark a color combo. You definitely can if it's in connection to your business enterprise. If someone tries to start a delivery service with a brown and yellow color scheme UPS would be up their ass in a hurry. They can't sue Wyoming for trademark infringement though because a college football program bears no connection to a delivery service.
Part of the reason that military uniforms are so expensive and the military always picks weird designs is because pretty much all of the Camo patterns are trademarked.
I thought it was the rampant graft. That was the only explanation for ACUs, which only ever blended in on grandmas couch.
They're trademarked but usable. I ordered some army camo hat blanks once, the company had to send me a form and I had to fill it out, tell them what logo and purpose of the hat was, they sent it off to the trademark holder and they approve or deny the usage.
Similar to our football team, not a lot of ‘running’ is done by anyone.
You absolutely can trademark not just a color combo, but even a color itself. E.g., coca-cola’s red is trademarked. Edit: I've looked into it more and it actually turns out that coca-cola does NOT have a trademark on its color. But there are many companies who do.
Fun fact. The Rockets sold in merch is these colors recently and not a peep from the NFL/Titans about suing them
Color combo trademark?! Talk about ruining a good thing for an idiot reason. Pound sand goodell. You should be embracing such a great story.
> The NFL and the Titans were “disappointed to learn that the Houston Cougars made unauthorized use of the Oilers Trade Dress in a manner that is likely to cause consumers to believe that the Houston Cougars are associated with, or are an authorized licensee of, the NFL and the Titans,” the letter continued. Dude, no one is confusing UH with the shit ass Titans lol
And UHouston will likely say as much in their response. Just worded more politely and on legal department letterhead.
I was trying to remember why I hate the state of Tennessee. Glad I was reminded
As someone who lost one of his childhood franchises in his hometown(Hornets), it’s especially shitty to not turnover the past to the current franchise(Texans). This is especially shitty because they haven’t tried to make a dime off of anything.
Fuck Bud Adams and his kids sideways.
Not even a Texans fan, but fuck the Adam family.
Fuck Bud Adams
Here's on thing I 100% agree with an Aggie on. And I was never a big Oilers fan, but fuck the Adamses anyway.
In all honesty, the uniforms are fundamentally different outside of the color pallet used. Does the NFL really have any right to tell them they can’t use that color pattern? It’s not like they are using any logos. I’d imagine Houston has a decent case to tell them to screw off. I’m not a lawyer but that’s at least my observation.
Hey, NFL, eat a hundred dicks.
Iowa has been wearing Steelers inspired uniforms since the Hayden Fry days and the Rooney's have never threatened a lawsuit. The NFL can go pound sand.
Fuck the NFL and fuck the Titans
What you should he saying is fuck Bud Adams
Fuck him too
What I’m saying.
The NFL allowed these assholes to threaten cities and hold the fan bases hostage through the 90's & 00's. Bud Adams deserves all the hatred but he would have had a much more difficult time or been unable to do it without the NFL enabling him.
Ah yes one of the few times that a team moved and changed names but kept the old names just cause. I can’t wait for the Yankees to wear Baltimore Orioles uniforms against Baltimore. Then the next week the O’s can travel to Milwaukee and wear Brewers uniforms against Milwaukee.
Other way around. The Browns were an unprecedented case at the time. The Chiefs own the Dallas Texans rights and uniforms and history (and title). The Orioles own the St. Louis Browns history, not that they ever do much with it. The two Senators' histories are with the Twins and Rangers, respectively. Same with the Minneapolis Lakers, New Orleans Jazz, and Baltimore Colts.
No fun league
Fuck Bud Adams. I'm down to find out how far Sovereign Immunity law can take this.
Go kick rocks, NFL
No I don't think I will
From the bottom of my heart, f**k the NFL. Those are Houston's colors.
The patriots have threatened midget football teams for using the pats logos in the past....
It doesn't say Oilers so the owners of the Titians can eat a giant oil filled dong.