Fear of NFL Super Bowl TM Protection Overblown

February 5, 2016Article
Law360

Greenberg Glusker sports and entertainment partner Ricardo Cestero was quoted in a Law360 article, “Fear of NFL Super Bowl TM Protection Overblown, Attys Say.” The article was written by sports reporter Zachary Zagger on February 5, 2016, just days before “the big game.”

The article reminds us every year there are stories of the NFL sending cease-and-desist letters to advertisers, bars, television stations and even churches demanding they stop using the words "Super Bowl."

However, the NFL's trademark protections do not extend quite as far as it would like or as far as people think.

As Ricardo Cestero points out, "The irony of this whole thing is that it is a big mythology that companies cannot use the term 'Super Bowl' in connection with advertising activities that are related directly to the Super Bowl."