ADVERTISEMENTS

Earlier this year, the ?Super Bowl? trademark story of the year centered not around the NFL?s usual efforts to crack down on unauthorized use of the SUPER BOWL trademark, but instead about purported efforts by the NFL to claim ownership to the mark WHO DAT (coverage of the dispute here and here)

On March 4, 2010, Who Dat? Inc. (?WDI?) filed a lawsuit against the NFL, the New Orleans Saints, the Louisiana Secretary of State and the State of Louisiana. See Who Dat?, Inc. v. NFL Properties, LLC et al, Case No. 10-cv-00154 (M. D. La. March 4, 2010). A copy of the complaint can be downloaded here (or here). Other press coverage here, here and here.

Courthousenews provides an excellent summary of the pertinent allegations of the 60 page, 189 paragraph, 16 count action complaint (which includes pictures) which tells quite a story about the two men who created the ?Who Dat? fight song for the New Orleans Saints back in 1983 and began the dream of creating a name that would make them millions . . . and how the dream became a ?nightmare.? But the following paragraph near the beginning of the complaint summarizes the crux of the dispute:

Interestingly, while several Louisiana state trademark registrations are noted throughout the complaint as evidence of WDI?s trademark rights, WDI had very few federal registrations to evidence its trademark rights. One was for soft drinks, but it has since been canceled (the 5 year statement of use was not filed). Another was for the mark WHO DAT BLUE BAND, but as noted in the complaint, this was registered by a third party in 2004, and only assigned to WDI in December 2009 in order to resolve a cancellation proceeding filed by WDI.

WDI had several other intent-to-use trademark applications pending, but each went abandoned for lack of any Statement of Use, including two applications for clothing (here and here) and two applications for potato chips (here and here) ? all filed on the basis of intent-to-use and all went abandoned after no Statement of Use was filed. One additional use-in-commerce application for bumper stickers went abandoned after failing to respond to an office action.

More recently, WDI filed another use-in-commerce application for WHO DAT on January 7, 2010, covering musical sound recordings and various clothing items (claiming date of first use going back to October 1983). Unfortunately, WDI?s application to register the mark for its clothing goods will inevitably be suspended pending the outcome of two earlier filed applications for WHO DAT (currently allowed and awaiting a Statement of Use from the applicant and WHO DAT' JE CROIS.

One has to wonder why WDI did not follow through with its federal trademark registrations for clothing if, as stated in the complaint, it was licensing the mark to third parties for use in connection with shirts and other products. It certainly recognized the importance of seeking federal registrations ? as evidenced by its prior applications. And while it?s not clear how WDI may have sold its goods throughout the years, it currently sells its goods through the website ? whodatstuff.com ? a domain name registered on August 13, 2009.

The situation serves as lesson that a trademark is only as good as its ability to serve as a unique source identifier for a particular source of goods or services. Just because you come up with a unique phrase does not mean that you have any exclusive rights to the term to the extent you are not actually using it in a manner that would be recognized as a source identifier in connection with particular goods and services. As for WDI, it's one thing to talk about having created a unique term or phrase ? its quite another to have the evidence to show that it has always served as a unique identifier for WDI's goods and services. We shall see.

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.