Sort of. They take into account how long the trademark had been in use prior to becoming protected, and the Aggies have been using “12th Man” since 1922.
Disclaimer: all above posts by me are my views on the subject at hand and are in no way official answers from the USPTO.
Actually, a Test match involves about six hours of actual play per day.
The six hours is broken up in to three two-hour sessions. A typical day looks something like this:
11.00 am - 1.00 pm Session 1
1.00 pm - 1.40 pm Lunch
1.40 pm - 3.40 pm Session 2
3.40 pm - 4.00 pm Tea
4.00 pm - 6.00 pm Session 3
Drinks are generally served on the field at the mid-point of each session (i.e., after an hour of play). The two twelfth men (one for each team) drive onto the field in a little golf cart and give drinks to the players and umpires. The drinks break generally lasts about five minutes, after which play resumes.
On very hot days, the officials can decide to allow two drinks breaks per session.
Yep. And they had banners hanging in the old Kingdome and psuedo-jerseys for sale with all of the retired numbers since at least '86 (when I first attended a game).
It’s my understanding that Texas A&M’s copyright or trademark only covers intercollegiate use. Any other use is fair game. For example, Florida State would be prohibited from using 12th Man in Tallahassee, but there’s really nothing stopping the Seattle Seahawks from using it, not being a college team.
Thanks. That confirms my understanding, at least.
Two more clarifications:
If third-party vendors are selling stuff that combines Seahawks and “12th Man,” then the Aggies should be suing those vendors, right? In other words, the Seahawks don’t have an obligation to protect the Aggies’ trademark (though they could protect their own).
The Aggies’ “12th Man” trademark only applies to (American) football promotion, right? Or to all sports (not that it would make sense)? Someone could make a sequel to The Third Man and call it The 12th Man with no trouble. Or start a restaurant that wasn’t football themed. Or something else.
Maybe a silly question, but why not come in out of the sun to take the break?
Well, the drinks break is meant to take as little time as possible; it’s not really meant to be a long rest, but just an opportunity to rehydrate. It’s quicker for the twelfth men to buzz out onto the field in a little golf cart and hand dinks to everyone than it is for 15 people (2 batsmen, 11 players on the fielding team, and 2 umpires) to walk off the ground.
Also—and this is as important as anything else in cricket—it’s tradition to do it this way, so that’s how they do it.
(Except the golf carts, of course. Those were only introduced in the last ten years or so. Before that, the twelfth men pushed the drinks out on a little cart or carried them in coolers)
Because that wouldn’t be cricket, chap.
Right.
While the tradmark specifically applies to intercollegiate American football promotion, it could easily be applied to pro-football promotion if others are profiting off the exact mark or components of the mark. Other uses of the mark are permissible as long as it would be reasonable to expect that nobody would confuse one use for another. For example, it would be reasonable to expect nobody to confuse The Twelfth Man, a sequel to The Third Man, with Texas A&M but if somone wanted to make The Twelfth Man about Aggies fans, they wouldn’t be able to use the 12th Man logo unless they license it from Texas A&M.
Again, these are not to be construed as official answers.