Posts Tagged: "nfl"

Much of the science behind how concussions are sustained is still underdeveloped, but rotational forces created on the brain when a body sustains an off-center hit may be to blame. Helmet safety standards enforced by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment have been largely unchanged since the early 1970s and typically only measures linear forces created in a straight impact. The helmet industry has been pretty stagnant for decades, but the new push for better protections against concussions has been driving innovation within the industry over the past few years.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host the 2011 National Trademark Expo on Friday, October 14th, and Saturday, October 15th, at the USPTO’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The free two-day event is designed to educate the public about the value of trademarks in the global marketplace. If you have young children and are looking for something exceptionally fun, and free, I highly recommend the Trademark Expo. While there are seminars aimed at adults, which are quite good, children will have a blast because costumed characters will be walking about and mugging for photos with children, families and adults too!

If you are a user of Twitter you have probably seen more than a few tweets using “#FF” followed by a number of names. #FF stands for “Follow Friday.” On Fridays many Twitter users will suggest who others should follow by tweeting with the hashtag #FF. If this is gobbledygook to you where have you been? Twitter is a great way to stay up to day with news and information from the sources that you like the most. You need to get on the Twitter bandwagon and give it a try!

Earlier this month Dechert LLP, representing an undisclosed number of companies (“stakeholders”), sent a letter to IMG College (“IMG”) and its licensing division, the Collegiate Licensing Company (“CLC”), and demanded that IMG and CLC cease and desist any efforts to restrict the number of licensees permitted to supply merchandise bearing the brands of various NCAA colleges and universities. It looks likes trademark and antitrust issues are back on the menu in sports, which makes intellectual property nerds like me very happy. We all knew American Needle Inc. v. National Football League (“Needle”) would embolden private antitrust suits; it was just a question of when. But a pivotal question is should Needle be extended to permit private antitrust suits in collegiate athletics?

The coming together of Ted Olson and David Boies for the purpose of advocating for a judicial system was not by happenstance. As you will read in the interview that follows, the men are aware they are high profile attorneys and hope that their fame will enable them to capture the attention of legislatures, lawyers and the public. They are each committed to advocating for a judicial system starved for resources and without lobbyists of its own, but which is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government along with the Legislative and Executive Branches of government.

About 10 years ago, the NFLP decided that they wanted Reebok (and only Reebok) to make hats with the teams’ logos on them. American Needle, Inc., a competitor of Reebok, had been making these types of hats for the NFL for a really long time, and as a result of the NFLP’s deal with Reebok, it lost its contract with NFLP to make said hats. American Needle, Inc. did not have much of a sense of humor about this and sued the NFL under Antitrust principles. Enter American Needle v. National Football League et al. Needle is a big case because if the NFL had gotten what it asked for, the player’s union wouldn’t have been able to decertify and the players wouldn’t have been able to bring an antitrust suit.

Classic Ink, Inc., owner of Classic Sports Logos brand apparel line and rapidly growing trademark licensing firm, secured a major legal victory in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against American Needle, Inc., and its Red Jacket apparel business on Aug. 6, 2010. After a five-day trial, the seven-member jury returned a unanimous verdict finding American Needle and its Red Jacket apparel business infringed Classic Ink’s trademark rights. Readers may recall that just a few months ago it was American Needle that celebrated an important win, with a win over the National Football League at the United States Supreme Court. See American Needle v. National Football League.

After 6 months and 15 days we still wait for a decision in Bilski v. Kappos, perhaps the most anticipated Supreme Court patent decision of all time. So, once again, it seems as if the patent story of the day will be the one that never materialized. The difficulty the Supreme Court is facing is in all likelihood this: how do they kill the Bilski patent application as being unpatentable subject matter without also killing the US economy. A decision that is too broad not only could put an end to the pure business methods akin to the Bilski “invention,” but could also put an end to the patentability of software, business methods and medical innovations. Thus, it is hardly an overstatement to observe that the Bilski case, if decided improperly, could destroy an already fragile US economy and set back medical research decades.

The difference between a successful and unsuccessful season for an NFL Football Team often times hinges upon the outcome of a single game. In some cases, a single play of a game can doom a team’s season or even a coaching/playing career. Due to the heightened importance of games in the NFL, indeed, the importance of every play, instant replay…

This post may not be as off-topic as you think simply by reading the title.  Yes, I will be licking my wounds as a result of an opening day fantasy football loss, but what is really prompting this article is a discussion this morning on ESPN radio with host Eric Kuselias, who incidentally was managing partner of Goldblatt, Kuselias &…

By now it would seem that virtually everyone knows of the enormous upset pulled off by the New York Giants against the New England Patriots (17-14) in the Super Bowl on Sunday.  As soon as I saw Bill Belichick, the Coach for the New England Patriots, who I have taken to calling Belicheat, I knew the Patriots were in trouble. …