According to a story by the New York Times, professional athletes are increasingly looking to trademark law to protect words, phrases, and symbols associated with themselves. From the article:
“[Darrelle] Revis is among a number of athletes who are seeking federal trademark protection for their names, nicknames and even their catchphrases. The slogans come in all varieties: trash-talking (“Stomp You Out,” claimed by the former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan); self-aggrandizing (“I Love Me Some Me,” registered by Bengals wide receiver Terrell Owens); self-deprecating (“Manny Being Manny,” claimed, and later abandoned, by the baseball slugger Manny Ramirez); and just plain weird (“Got Strange?” registered by Vikings defensive end Jared Allen).”
This is great news. Now you can be sure that your officially licensed Terrell Owens t-shirt will perform at the level you expect from the brand — i.e., for only 6 weeks of the season.
FR
They are just basically hoping that someone would want to put the stupid things they say on bumper stickers and T-Shirts…
seowebworks
This pretty much separates the smart athletes from the dumb ones…
jake from ustrademarkregistration.net
“They are just basically hoping that someone would want to put the stupid things they say on bumper stickers and T-Shirts…”
They must be marketing geniuses since they want to control their brand so tightly. Or they might just want to get a % of commercial sales or worst, litigate a clueless JoeFan for using their catchphrases.
Mike Gramsby
This is just an interesting and funny indicator of the increasingly commercial world we are living in, where people want to trademark every silly little thing in the hope of making a dollar. Some might say they’re just protecting the value of their brands, but I wonder how many athletes sit around thinking of catchphrases they can make their own, in order thereby to increase their profile and income.