MLS Attempts to Trademark Term “Cascadia Cup”

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.

I remember when Honda created the LAG-CUSA SuperClassico.

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.

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.

Who has the copyright on the SS?

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.

Do you lose any of those rights by displaying in their stadiums at their games?

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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?

the slogan isn't the issue, it is the font and style. It is taken directly from the banner and put on a t-shirt.
http://www.rallyhouse.com/prodimages/alt_images/tiny/14853355-1.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52201706@N04/5816546673/

It isn't even question what adidas was trying to do.

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.

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

Just put a placard on the bottom

lazio.

Since this is obviously a sponsorship cash grab situation by Major League Soccer, just call it "The Snack Plate, presented by Taco Bell"

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?

Is this a device for consuming marijuana smoke?

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

Negative ghostrider, it's how we drink coffee here in Seattle.

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.