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NFL bar room bet

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Barroom better

Junior Member
does Pat Bowlen own the Denver Bronco's or the Bronco's. we agreed that as trademark and copy rights Denver Broncos is ok, but cannot find out, if the city is part of the legal name, or if the legal name is just the Bronco's? I had found somewhere that city names are fair game, but that just opened up a whole new can of worms!

Thank You
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
You need to indicate what state you are in.

City names by themselves can not be trademarks, but the city name combined with something else fanciful can be.

In your case "DENVER" can't be a trademark. Nothing prohibits you from printing up shirts that say DENVER.
BRONCOS on the other hand and the words DENVER BRONCOS together could be. In fact DENVER BRONCOS is a registered trademark and the registration even says that they hold no claim on the word DENVER alone. You can't make items using BRONCOS trademarks without running afoul of the owner of the mark.

Names like "DENVER BROCOS" are not protectable by copyright only trademarks. However the logo (the bronco horse head with or without the D) can be protected by both copyright and trademark.

Oh, and yes PDB sports (which is Pat Bowlen's LP) does own those marks.
 

quincy

Senior Member
In addition to the names Denver Broncos and Broncos, there are other registered trademarks to consider.

The colors of the team are protected if used in a way that implies affiliation with the team. Although "Denver" can be used by anyone when referring to the city, Denver cannot be used on sports attire or on other goods if combined with the colors navy and orange.

Sound alike names can also infringe (e.g., Bronkos).

Do you live in Colorado?
 

Barroom better

Junior Member
Yes I live In Colorado Springs. mainly, we where just trying to see, what Mr bowlen owned as far as the name. this all came up because of the relocations of the Rams, Raiders, and Chargers!
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Just to further muddy the waters. As I said, you can't lay claim to the city. The question is whether the additional stuff would make the mark sufficiently non-descriptive.

For example, there's a lot of fun and games with the company The Boston Beer Company (which makes the Sam Adams brand). They went around trying to sue anybody who used Boston in a beer brand. They lost soundly. It's not even clear that Boston Beer itself would be sufficiently non-descriptive. Not only did they lose soundly on those arguments they went on to claim "The Best Beer in America" was trademarkable and lost pretty soundly on that.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Just to further muddy the waters. As I said, you can't lay claim to the city. The question is whether the additional stuff would make the mark sufficiently non-descriptive.

For example, there's a lot of fun and games with the company The Boston Beer Company (which makes the Sam Adams brand). They went around trying to sue anybody who used Boston in a beer brand. They lost soundly. It's not even clear that Boston Beer itself would be sufficiently non-descriptive. Not only did they lose soundly on those arguments they went on to claim "The Best Beer in America" was trademarkable and lost pretty soundly on that.
When a trademark is filed that uses a city name in the mark, the city name is disclaimed and only the combination of city with word(s) can be protected.

But even those marks that start off as weak descriptive marks can become strong marks over time. Kentucky Fried Chicken is one example and Arizona Iced Tea is another.

The Boston Beer Company can prevent others from naming their company The Boston Beer Company but they cannot prevent other beer companies in Boston from using the words Boston or beer or company in their advertising. The companies can advertise as Boston beer companies (as long as the advertising does not confuse consumers into thinking the companies are the same or affiliated in any way with each other).
 
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