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Can you use sports League names/abbreviations? Team names? Player names?

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chris_284

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I'm Canadian, but my application (mobile for iPhone) is a U.S. entity.

For the past 6+ months, I've spent 6.5 days a week working many 15 hour night learning iOS mobile development, and created an app for iPhone. After submitting to the App Store, I've been rejected for the following reason...

From Apple
8.5 - Apps may not use protected third party material such as trademarks, copyrights, patents or violate 3rd party terms of use. Authorization to use such material must be provided upon request

8.5 Details

Your app includes content or features that resemble one or multiple third-parties, NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA, without the necessary authorization to use this material.

Pursuant to your agreement with Apple, you represent and warrant that your application does not infringe the rights of another party, and that you are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim that your application infringes another party's rights. Moreover, we may reject or remove your application for any reason, at our sole discretion.

Next Steps

Please remove all third-party names from your app icon and screenshots. Alternatively, if you are authorized to use these names in your app and its metadata, please provide documentary evidence of rights to use this content. Once Legal has reviewed your documentation and confirms its validity, we will proceed with the review of your app.


I really really should have looked into this before embarking on this adventure. I was under the impression that team logos, league logos, etc were copyright... but names were not. I looked into a statistics case vs the MLB awhile back, where it was ruled this website was allowed to use player statistics and data so long as the specific statistic was not a made up one owned by the MLB.

My app specifically allows people to talk about players. It also includes the teams the players are on, and allows users to filter by League. I am not using any icons affiliated with any leagues.

For example, on the app's main page, you can click a filter button and are presented with 4 options. "NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL". If you filtered to NFL, you might see a question posted by a user asking about Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning this year. There would be comments on the question, and a discussion among the apps users. I include some context information. If the user picks these players, I include that "Tom Brady" plays for the "New England Patriots", he is a "Quarterback", etc.

Surely, a position like "QB" is not copyrighted. I wouldn't think a name like "Tom Brady" is in this context either, but I don't really know. How about the team name? And why the League abbreviation like "NFL".

What are my options here?

I could change "NFL" to "Football", but then they may re-review my app and reject it because I'm using "Tom Brady", or "New England Patriots" or "QB".

Any help is very much appreciated!
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I'm Canadian, but my application (mobile for iPhone) is a U.S. entity.

For the past 6+ months, I've spent 6.5 days a week working many 15 hour night learning iOS mobile development, and created an app for iPhone. After submitting to the App Store, I've been rejected for the following reason...

From Apple
8.5 - Apps may not use protected third party material such as trademarks, copyrights, patents or violate 3rd party terms of use. Authorization to use such material must be provided upon request

8.5 Details

Your app includes content or features that resemble one or multiple third-parties, NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA, without the necessary authorization to use this material.

Pursuant to your agreement with Apple, you represent and warrant that your application does not infringe the rights of another party, and that you are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim that your application infringes another party's rights. Moreover, we may reject or remove your application for any reason, at our sole discretion.

Next Steps

Please remove all third-party names from your app icon and screenshots. Alternatively, if you are authorized to use these names in your app and its metadata, please provide documentary evidence of rights to use this content. Once Legal has reviewed your documentation and confirms its validity, we will proceed with the review of your app.


I really really should have looked into this before embarking on this adventure. I was under the impression that team logos, league logos, etc were copyright... but names were not. I looked into a statistics case vs the MLB awhile back, where it was ruled this website was allowed to use player statistics and data so long as the specific statistic was not a made up one owned by the MLB.

My app specifically allows people to talk about players. It also includes the teams the players are on, and allows users to filter by League. I am not using any icons affiliated with any leagues.

For example, on the app's main page, you can click a filter button and are presented with 4 options. "NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL". If you filtered to NFL, you might see a question posted by a user asking about Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning this year. There would be comments on the question, and a discussion among the apps users. I include some context information. If the user picks these players, I include that "Tom Brady" plays for the "New England Patriots", he is a "Quarterback", etc.

Surely, a position like "QB" is not copyrighted. I wouldn't think a name like "Tom Brady" is in this context either, but I don't really know. How about the team name? And why the League abbreviation like "NFL".

What are my options here?

I could change "NFL" to "Football", but then they may re-review my app and reject it because I'm using "Tom Brady", or "New England Patriots" or "QB".

Any help is very much appreciated!
It seems to me that Apple was clear about your options.
 

chris_284

Junior Member
It seems to me that Apple was clear about your options.
Yes, here are the actions I may take: Please remove all third-party names from your app icon and screenshots. Alternatively, if you are authorized to use these names in your app and its metadata, please provide documentary evidence of rights to use this content. Once Legal has reviewed your documentation and confirms its validity, we will proceed with the review of your app.

I must remove all third party names. What constitutes a third party name? Evidently, MLB for example does. How about "New York Yankees", or "Derek Jeter" or "Shortstop"?

Here's an article on the MLB and whether they own the data. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060808/1850214.shtml

So a couple of options.

I could take the MLB/NFL/NBA/NHL legal documents to a lawyer, and get a description of what I legally can and cannot use.

I could contact the 4 leagues for their written permission, but I'm guessing that I'm more likely to be pointed toward their legal documents above.

The answer may lie within the legal document of the leagues, but I'm cannot understand them to the level of detail necessary. While using MLB apparently isn't allowed, obviously "Shortstop" is as it's a baseball term and has nothing to do with MLB. What about the greyer ones in between like team and player names. The article seems to suggest MLB does not own player names. However, I'm not sure about team names. I've seen both used in other applications, however.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
The answer may lie within the legal document of the leagues, but I'm cannot understand them to the level of detail necessary.
You will want to seek the advise of an attorney.

ETA: Of course, I meant advice - oopsie.
 
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