I’ve noticed that only some of the various contests in which the prize involves tickets to the Super Bowl actually use that name in their promotional literature. For example, TV ads for a current contest sponsored by Lycos refer only to “The Big Game”, and the grand prize specified on the the Lycos web site states “trip to the 2003 football championship game” without mentioning the NFL or the Super Bowl. Makes it sound like they intend to substitute a trip to the Arena Football championship instead.
Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s copyrighted. Sorry, but I can’t provide a cite.
I can, however, provide an interesting anecdote: I heard a commentator on a sports-talk radio station give his opinion on the whole deal. It went something like this: “Super Bowl! I said it! Ya like that, you pussies? Super Bowl! I said it again. Super Bowl! Yeah, feels good! Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Super Bowl! And if you don’t like it, you can sue my per bowl ass!” (Say that last sentence out loud if it doesn’t make any sense to you.)
That would be trademarked, not copyrighted. In order for someone to use it for commercial purposes, they would need to obtain permission, and thus pay more bucks. It seems to me that this is a stretch of trademark law, but I ain’t no Nimmer.
If trademark holders can prevent other people from using the trademarks, why aren’t the negative reviews in Consumer Reports full of references like “the tire whose name we can’t mention but rhymes with Briarstone”?
Because Consumer Reports would not be using the mark FIRESTONE in a trademark sense, i.e., as an identifier of source. Commentary about specific marks, using marks as descriptors of inventory (e.g., We sell Mobil oil), and other uses are all fair uses and do not invoke trademark laws.
Thanks for the replies; I sort of assumed that it had something to do with trademarking the name, but jeez, effectively these contests are promoting the game for the NFL. You’d think they’d cut some slack for that.
Monkeypants, it seems to me that using the name Super Bowl while explaining the prizes for a contest is a factual description of inventory. “We have two tickets for the football game known as the Super Bowl, and we’ll give them away to caller #103.”
They’re not using the trademarks to describe something they’re selling, like hosting their own backyard football game and calling it the Super Bowl; they just want to clarify which football game they’re giving away tickets for.
Wouldn’t they be allowed to say “we’ll give away a pair of Adidas sneakers we bought at Foot Locker”?
It depends on whether the NFL or Adidas, or Foot Locker or whomever is officially participating in the promotion. If they are, then you and they are partners and your partnership will allow you to use the name.
But if the NFL is partnering with radio station A to give away free tickets, and radio station B buys a pair of tickets on their own and gives them away, then for B to announce “free tickets to the Super Bowl” would be - in effect - stealing the value of the promotion from the NFL and station A.
It also depends on who the “official” whatever is for the super bowl. When I worked at a pizza place, another pizza chain paid for the right to be the official pizza of the Super Bowl so we had to refer to “The Big Game” in our promotion.
Yes, when I read the OP I thought that saying “we are giving away tickets to the Super Bowl” would be ok, and it is, in the traditional sense. But there may be state (or possibly Federal) laws forbidding the use of a trademark in association with a contest, because it creates a false association. The Lanham Act forbids such false associations, but I don’t think that Lycos’ use would be triggering that. My guess is that there are specific laws dealing with contests.
Funny I was just thinking about this when I was watching the baseball playoffs. There was a promotion/contest (can’t remember who was involved) and the grand prize was to “Baseball’s Championship Game”, or something like that.
It caught me by surprise that they didn’t say World Series. I guess it makes more sense now.
Later on Fox had a promotion for “Baseballs Greatest Moments” (don’t even get me started with this crap) and stated that they were to be revealed before/during game 4 of the World Series. Of cousre, since Fox has the broadcasting rights I am sure they get to use World Series as much as they want.