My local radio station is advertising a contest to win Super Bowl tickets. But apparently for some reason they can’t say “Super Bowl”. They have to dance around the terms, saying you’ll have a “super” time and it will “bowl” you over. (Where’s that rolleyes smiley?)
I just can’t figure out what possible legal justification there is for this. The product is “Super Bowl tickets” and they’re giving them away. Why can’t they say that?
The NFL holds the rights to the game and is very protective of the use of it’s name. If stations want to use it, the have to get clearance from the NFL & pay big bucks.
So, why is “Super Bowl” forbidden while stuff like "12th caller get 2 tickets to “Return of the King” passes muster?
I’m sure that the radio station should be able to say “Super Bowl.” It’s a nominative fair use. The only thing I can think of is that there might be a contract accompanying the ticket (perhaps printed on the back) that says a condition of buying it is that you can’t use the name in connection with an unauthorized promotion. Without such a contract, the N.F.L. would have no leg to stand on.
Because New Line (and other studios) doesn’t send ceast-and-desist letters and threaten to sue. The NFL does.
Smak Fu, I worked at a place of business that is exactly as you describe. After running the promotion for a few days, we had to rename it or pay $.
There is only one Super Bowl, and that is the Super Bowl.
Behind all the ticket give aways and promotions, money changes hands, and the NFL wants their cut.
Are you sure these aren’t tickets to your local bowling alley where you will have a “super” good time?
Because New Line gives the stations tickets to give away on the air. An on-air give away is considered a promotional announcement(advertising).
The NFL feels it doesn’t need to take part in this type of promotion. The station in the OP either paid for or bartered for the tickets they are using from a 3rd party.
Haven’t you ever noticed this “dance around the subject” before?? Expect to see Best Buy and Circuit City running ads any day now advertising big-screen TVs delivered “in time for the big game”. Grocery store ads encourage you to stock up on party stuff “for the big game”. Now if this happened any time there was a “big game” be it college, baseball or what have you that would be one thing. But I only se these ads in the last week of January. Always.
Does the NFL actually have the legal authority to keep people from saying Super Bowl as part of a giveaway, or are they just sending out frivolous letters to make people think they do?
It seems ridiculous that a radio station would be able to give away tickets, but not to say what the tickets are good for. “You can win Super Bowl tickets” is a simple statement of fact about the prize they’re giving away.
“Caller #9 wins a pair of tickets to an upcoming concert… why don’t you point it out with an ARROW, Mr. SMITH?”
“This Friday, one of the first ten customers at Todd’s Furniture will win a new hybrid car. Come on down, our PRIUSes are insane!”
"The National Football League (“NFL”) controls all marketing rights with respect to the Super Bowl and its associated trademarks. The NFL uses its protected marks for revenue-raising purposes and reserves the use of such symbols to official sponsors and licensees who have made major investments in order to acquire the right to use these marks. In consideration of these major investments made by official sponsors and licensees, the NFL vigorously protects and enforces its rights in Super Bowl marks.
“Attempting to form an association with the NFL or the Super Bowl in the minds of consumers by using promotions and advertisements designed to create the appearance of a relationship between the station and/or station clients and the Super Bowl — sometimes referred to as “ambush marketing” — is a risky practice. The NFL and its official sponsors may have legal claims for trademark infringement, unfair competition, false advertising, and misappropriation of good will against entities infringing sponsorship rights. Unlicensed use of such trademarks for any purpose, including the sale or promotion of any products or services bearing those marks, for the purpose of trade or to induce the sale of any goods or services is unlawful. Although the use of a disclaimer, such as “not an official sponsor of the Super Bowl” may protect a potential infringer to a certain extent, use of such disclaimers is not fail-safe.”
Duckster had it right in his(?) post. (Sorry, I’m assuming you’re male). The NFL has Super Bowl trademarked and copyrighted IIRC. However, I don’t see any limit to someone referring to it as the World Championship Game of America’s leading spectator sport. Given the timing, you could make an argument for the Daytona 500, but I think most people would know it’s the Super Bowl. Sorry if that was a bit off topic. Eh, no I’m not. shrug
Thanks for your reply…
I don’t doubt that the NFL has a trademark on the phrase “Super Bowl” or that they’ve filed a lot of lawsuits, but have they actually won any cases against businesses that have used it? I didn’t think trademark would allow them to prevent others from using it in a descriptive context.
Are media outlets allowed to say Super Bowl outside of a promotion, without permission from the NFL? For example, “Local police are ramping up security for the Super Bowl this weekend” or “Q6 News mourns the loss of Flip Weathersby, who suffered a fatal heart attack yesterday after learning that he won two Super Bowl tickets in a radio contest.”
Certainly.
My memory is foggy and this isn’t my area of legal expertise, but it seems to me that the NFL hasn’t always been so uptight about such things, and that if push came to shove in a court case that the NFL might very well lose if the defendant being sued by the NFL could produce copies of newspaper TV ads from say, 1975, 1980 and 1985 which said “Super Bowl” sale instead of “Big Game Sale.”
And assuming the defendant had the wherewithal to withstand the legal war of attrition such a case would become.
That’s just my uninformed opinion though, and not a fact.
According to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records, “Super Bowl” was first used in commerce as a service mark in January 1967, was filed with the USPTO in March 1969, and registered in December 1969. The NFL has renewed the registration twice.
The USPTO database is strewn with “dead” attempts to register other goods and services with “Super Bowl” names (e.g., “The Super Bowl of Comedy”), so the NFL may be enforcing their claim.
I see these adds in December. They run through the college bowl games and I always thought they are generic so they can apply to what ever bowl in which your favorite team is playing.
I recently heard the most ludicrous example of this “trademark name dance” in a local (NYC) radio advertisement, albeit not for the Supe… Umm, Big Game. The product was a baseball signed by prominent former members of (…are you ready for this?..) “the team that plays in the Bronx.” That’s right folks, an autographed baseball signed by players of “the team that plays in the Bronx.” Yes indeed, “the team that plays in the Bronx.”
At least “the Big Game” has a certain ring to it. “The team that plays in the Bronx” is just rediculous. And the poor announcer had to repeat the stupid phrase over and over again in the ad.
A local radio station received a cease and desist letter from the NFL a few years ago while promoting a Super Bowl contest. Their response was to beep the “Super” part. That has since morphed into the DJ’s calling it the Beeper Bowl Contest.
I.P. lawyer here. If the radio station is giving away genuine tickets to the Super Bowl that were legitimately obtained, I don’t believe there is any trademark or copyright right that would allow the N.F.L. to prevent them from calling it “tickets to the Super Bowl.” It is nominative fair use to call a thing by its name. The examples of Best Buy, etc., are different, because what they are selling are not actually part of the Super Bowl. There has to be some other reason. My guess is that it’s a contract of some kind, which, as I said above, might be printed on the back of the ticket.