MLS Attempts to Trademark Term “Cascadia Cup”

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by carnifex2005, Jan 7, 2013.

  1. carnifex2005

    carnifex2005 Member+

    Jul 1, 2008
    Club:
    Vancouver Whitecaps
    From Prost Amerika.

    This should be an interesting fight. Personally, the supporters groups should be the ones doing the trademarking since it has been a trophy since 2004.
     
  2. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Same thing happened to Rocky Mountain Cup between RSL and Colorado. Supporters created it but MLS not only took it over but sold the "naming rights". It's called the Subaru RMC now or something.
     
  3. tab5g

    tab5g Member+

    May 17, 2002
    I remember when Honda created the LAG-CUSA SuperClassico.
     
  4. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know there was some talk after that of C10 getting a trademark on Rocky Mountain Cup before the teams did, I don't now if it ever happened though. C10 did a pretty good job of pushing back on that dumb-a$$ move, got some of the money from the sponsorship donated to the SG's for tailgates and to charity for tickets for Big Brothers/Big Sisters (IIRC) to attend games.
     
  5. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Looking at the US Trademark site:

    http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

    MLS filed for trademarks on Rocky Mountain Cup, Trillium Cup, Texas Derby, and Brimstone Cup on Dec 18th, 2012.

    (go to search, put in Major League Soccer for the search term and Owner Name and Address for the Field selection)

    So MLS is trying to grab the rights to all the rivalry cups? I know that C10 filed some sort of documentation for rights to the Rocky Mountain Cup name in the state of Colorado after the Subaru mess last year, but I'm not sure if it was a trademark or not. Either way, MLS didn't inform anyone in C10 of what they were doing. Even if MLS is just trying to protect them on behalf of the SG's, poor form by the league.
     
  6. El Naranja

    El Naranja Member+

    Sep 5, 2006
    Alief
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Who has the copyright on the SS?
     
  7. ojsgillt

    ojsgillt Member

    Feb 27, 2001
    Lee's Summit MO
    same thing with the "welcome to the blue hell" banner @ LSP. Adidas came in took pictures of it and then created t-shirts, not even bothering to change the font or the style. It is a blatant rip-off. What do we learn from this? trademark your intellectual property.
     
  8. greatscott

    greatscott Member+

    Dec 21, 2002
    Richmond
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do you lose any of those rights by displaying in their stadiums at their games?
     
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  9. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm okay with this, because I want MLS to be financially successful (as far as tastefulness is concerned, everything has a corporate sponsor these days), whereas I only care that supporters groups exist and can still use all these terms.
     
  10. Inca Roads

    Inca Roads Member+

    Nov 22, 2012
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    What kind of impact would this have? I don't know much about sponsorship of fan initiatives, but it sounds like they aiming for merchandising...
     
  11. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    If Adidas is involved, things can get ugly. I had some scarf designs made up for the inaugural game at LSP that featured the team's four main logos (Wiz, 2 different Wizards, and SKC). The team was actually on board, but adidas refused to allow the old logos to be used. On top of that, had they approved the usage, they had first right to be the supplier.

    Adidas pays MLS a lot of money, and somewhere in the legalese they're granted large amounts of control over merchandising and promotional usage of various team and league marks. As a fan, I would want to make sure that if MLS does trademark "Cascadia Cup" that that wouldn't prevent supporters groups from making their own "Cascadia Cup" scarves/tees/etc...

    [​IMG]
     
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  12. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MLS seems like they would be cool for the most part, I didn't know Adidas could be such dbags... hopefully it's not an issue.
     
  13. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A couple of C10 members have confirmed that C10 already filed state trademarks last summer in Colorado and Utah for Rocky Mountain Cup. IANAL but it seems the federal filing will give the trademark rights to MLS but in Colorado and Utah they can't use the trademark without going through C10. Obviously just because they can't do it doesn't mean they won't, especially since it would require C10 to go to the courts to stop them if they really try it, but hopefully having the trademark filed will be enough to get the league and FO's to play nice.

    C10 could also use their state filings to make a case that they have prior federal rights but that's a harder case to make and unless there's a copyright lawyer in one of the SG's that's willing to do the work pro bono I doubt the groups can afford to press the issue of MLS makes a case of it.
     
  14. Kappa74

    Kappa74 Member+

    Feb 2, 2010
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    On the Sounders team forum, a fan initiated scarf moment faced similar trademark problems. We spent months coming up with designs. Unfortunately, the one we decided on had the old school Sounders logo and the space needle. Even though team officials and the folks over at the space needle were cool with the scarves, no US manufacturer would touch our order. With various modifications, we eventually had them made in China for much less, the difference being donated to Steve Zakuani's charity. But it was a huge pain in the ass for the guy putting this together.
     
  15. Kappa74

    Kappa74 Member+

    Feb 2, 2010
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Looking at the new schedule, I see we now have a dedicated rivalry week. So what's the chance we start to see Cascadia Cup or Rocky Mountain Cup t-shirts being sold on the league's web page?
     
  16. BBBulldog

    BBBulldog Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 25, 2004
    Dinamo Zagreb
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    they're all huge pain in the ass, we stopped using DC United and crest 5-6 years ago :)

    Welcome to Blue Hell is BBB banner and slogan from 1980s lol i'm sure others came up with it too, it's not exactly groundbreaking, think I saw some turks with something similar recently too Can you even copyright stuff like that? Just don't buy their gear and support your groups :)
     
  17. ojsgillt

    ojsgillt Member

    Feb 27, 2001
    Lee's Summit MO
  18. Inca Roads

    Inca Roads Member+

    Nov 22, 2012
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    I just don't see how MLS will be able to trademark this upcoming Weed Cup between Seattle and Colorado. It just seems like it would not be in the league's best interest to even touch that one. :p

    By the way, somebody had better make than an actual trophy.
     
  19. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Just put a placard on the bottom

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. ji_shuheng

    ji_shuheng Member+

    Mar 26, 2003
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    lazio.
     
  21. PTFC in KCMO

    PTFC in KCMO Member+

    Aug 12, 2012
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Since this is obviously a sponsorship cash grab situation by Major League Soccer, just call it "The Snack Plate, presented by Taco Bell"
     
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  22. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Taco Bell has been ahead of the competition when it comes to marketing to the pot smoker, I am sure they could figure out something to make it sound legit but also speaks to the late munchies crowd. I mean who else eats the Doritos Nacho tacos?
     
  23. superdave

    superdave Member+

    Jul 14, 1999
    VB, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Is this a device for consuming marijuana smoke?

    I ask because I, personally, am completely unfamiliar with such things.
     
  24. Kappa74

    Kappa74 Member+

    Feb 2, 2010
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Negative ghostrider, it's how we drink coffee here in Seattle.
     
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  25. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm very surprised that so many people on here don't care if the league owns the rights to things that supporters created. Some of you think that "the league is pretty cool"--as if it isn't a profit-driven capitalist enterprise, just like adidas, that will run over anything that gets in its way as long as that's the best option. That seems naive. Sure, the league has more interest in not pissing off supporters' groups than adidas does. The execs at MLS nor adidas nor Nike nor any other business have any right whatsoever to appropriate supporters' ideas. Support them, great, but they belong to us.
     
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