So on Dec 18th, 2012 MLS filed trademark applications for Brimstone Cup, Trillium Cup, Texas Derby, and Rocky Mountain Cup, as well as (reportedly) Cascadia Cup in Canada. You can see the first 4 by going to the trademark site and doing a search for Major League Soccer as the owner name. The Cascadia SG's are already on the Cascadia Cup trademark but I wanted to spread the word in case C10 hadn't seen the RMC one.
Hmmm... I'm not sure what to make of this. What's your opinion, Jason? It seems that the RMC is becoming less and less "by the fans" and I admittedly feel slightly ripped off when I was one of the ones to put in hours of work to create the thing they're capitalizing on. Not a huge deal, but... slightly.
This kind of thing reminds me of hippsters who follow a small band until the band makes it and then get mad that the band is popular.
Probably a better way of looking at it would be a band that starts out small but puts in lots of hard work to make it big. Then some corporation comes in and starts making money on the band without the band's permission and without giving anything back to the band.
I don't like what MLS did here. Even if they're just getting protections in place without any other plans and plan to hand over those rights to the organizing groups they should have given a heads up to the various groups ahead of time. Getting legal protections around the names is a good idea, but this seems like a poor way to do it. And of course if this is just step 1 of MLS taking over supporters cups its even worse.
I have a quick question...would you have rather the league do this or one of the team's FO's? I mean, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but what would have been the lesser of the two evils from y'alls point of view
None of the above? Why did either one of them have to do it this way? What's wrong with them coming to C10 and saying "Hey, we want some legal protection around the name, can we file a trademark on your behalf"? and if they want to do more, like trying to take more control of it, then that's just a lousy idea no matter what.
I have to agree - this seems like the kind of thing that would have been a non-issue if MLS had just sent a couple of e-mails in advance. If they had simply said "hey, do you want us to trademark the name of your rivalry" I bet every supporter's group in the league would have said hell yeah because it adds to the legitimacy of these rivalries. Now they've got a PR mess on their hands.
Last I remember the C10 (with which I am vaguely involved) was filing around the time of the debacle with Subaru. Not sure where that ended up though. I've been digging through my emails to see if it was ever finalized but I haven't seen anything.
I wasn't part of the creation of the RMC, but I would be happy to assist anyone anyway I can...what's the next step? And exactly how much damage can this do?
That's exactly my question. I feel that there could be some damage done--perhaps to the independent nature of the rivalry--but I can't put my finger on what that damage might be.
Well...MLS ought to pay for all tailgates (for RMC matches) and offer discount airfare to traveling fans...i know it will never happen...just throwing it out there. And you are definately right...the indepedent feel about the rivarly is huge and it attracts all...I would hate for that to disappear.
The creators of the RMC should have done this on their own back in the day. Then, the SGs would have marketing rights that MLS would have compensated the SGs for. Snooze and loose. I'm not a lawyer, but I think it is possible to request compensation even at this point, but I think it is also possible that those rights went out the window when compensation wasn't requested last year when suddenly it was the Suburu RMC (IIRC).
That's correct - if you can prove you have "prior art" (which there clearly is in this case) then MLS' trademark can be invalidated.
I guess I'm just curious to see what they are going to do with these trademarks...it's funny how they are not thinking about what the supporters (the people that actually pay their bills) would think or say. And what can we do about it, short of litigation? Online petition, boycott rivalry matches? How far is everyone willing to go?
The RSL C10ers are discussing it privately and trying to get more information about this. I'm sure we'll post if there is any relevant news that we can share.
Glad that Jason raised this issue. However, I would point out its against the Terms of Service on the RSL boards to rep a cRapids fan. Justsayin'
Is this true? I understood that you had to prove that you were "the first to use" by using it for commercial purposes. I assume that MLS Soccer wants to file trademarks to ensure that they can use these names for marketing purposes. It would be embarassing for the league if everyone referred to it as the "Cascadia Cup", but they couldn't mention the name in their broadcasts of those games. Completely logical step by the league. If the fans wanted to monetize and protect the use of these terms they should have trademarked them themselves. Of course, that's the strictly litigious viewpoint. It would have been nice if the league and/or clubs would have reached out to the organizers of these "Cups" as they started this process. This could have been done at the Supporter Summit at MLS Cup, for instance. Are you gonna have to issue yourself a red card for that?
No, since I didnt Rep him. Its that little button to the bottom right that says Rep with the thumbs up. Besides I'm feeling generous, I would only issue a yellow to myself.