It's Now The Draft Champions League!

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:16 pm

I hate lawyers! They've messed up everything in this country!

TradeStar28 · Post by **TradeStar28** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:02 pm

Originally posted by Vega$ Gambler$:
Actually, the USPTO is only for REGISTERED TMs. you can aquire a TM by just using a name in a commercial aspect IE- Draftmasters. Most companies do not register thier names or logos, but they still own the TM. registering a TM only strengths thier arguement someone tries to inpead on that TM.

you cannot design an event called "World Championship of Fantasy Football", it is a direct violation of TM law. Just like Lenny marketed Draftmasters for the draft league. Even though Draft and Masters are indeed genereic terms, putting them together in a commercial aspect makes it a TM.

A TM can be claimed the moment it is used in a commercial practice. Hmm...That is interesting because I recall back in 1979, when my parents bought me a Timex Sinclair 2000 computer....I did point to the screen and then proceeded to look out my window....I muttered the word , "wINDOWS" and now I think I will give Bill Gates a call. I will settle for no less then $100.

BONGIZMO · Post by **BONGIZMO** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:14 pm

Come on guys, its a slightly different contest, a couple more team per league and a slight alteration in scoring. I don't see why it bothers any of you to have a change in name and i also don't see why Greg wouldn't want to have a name associated with just his event. I think a differentiation was well warranted and needed.

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:22 pm

I think it should be changed again to:

World and National Draft Champions of the Universe

D

lichtman · Post by **lichtman** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:15 am

How about "Emil & Lenny's Summertime Fun Draft League"?

dgamblnman · Post by **dgamblnman** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:35 am

Originally posted by Liquid:
quote:Originally posted by Vega$ Gambler$:
Actually, the USPTO is only for REGISTERED TMs. you can aquire a TM by just using a name in a commercial aspect IE- Draftmasters. Most companies do not register thier names or logos, but they still own the TM. registering a TM only strengths thier arguement someone tries to inpead on that TM.

you cannot design an event called "World Championship of Fantasy Football", it is a direct violation of TM law. Just like Lenny marketed Draftmasters for the draft league. Even though Draft and Masters are indeed genereic terms, putting them together in a commercial aspect makes it a TM.

A TM can be claimed the moment it is used in a commercial practice. Hmm...That is interesting because I recall back in 1979, when my parents bought me a Timex Sinclair 2000 computer....I did point to the screen and then proceeded to look out my window....I muttered the word , "wINDOWS" and now I think I will give Bill Gates a call. I will settle for no less then $100.

[/QUOTE]If anyone is interested, there have been questions about the windows TM and there are people fighting it right now to have it revoked.

Hell, McDonalds tried to TM the word "Smile".

But the bottom line is Draftmasters is TM b/c of it's commercial use in an event. The actuall event is fantasy football (generic). They called it draftmasters.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:46 am

I didn't mean to create animosity over this thread, just to inform everyone what the name of this contest will be the rest of this year and going forward. I have no problem changing the name to Draft Champions League and it was certainly Emil's right to ask me to change it. Draft Masters isn't trademarked by the WCOFF, but they certainly used the term first and if they felt my event was confusing their customers and could potentially lead to loss sales in the future they had every right to ask me to change the name of my event. As I stated earlier, I actually felt this was a generic term for this type of contest, so I didn't see any problem initially.

But life goes on. In 1989 when we started our magazine, we thought of calling it Rotisserie Baseball Magazine. The Founding Fathers said the term "Rotisserie" was trademarked and we couldn't use it, so we called it Fantasy Baseball Magazine and certainly felt that in no time at all everyone would refer to that sport as fantasy baseball instead of Rotisserie Baseball. Today it seems like a no-brainer, but trust me in 1989 hardly anyone referred to that as fantasy baseball. It was Rotisserie baseball.

We trademarked Fantasy Baseball Magazine and later trademarked Fantasy Sports Magazine. The terms can be used in many respects as we don't own the terms and we certainly understand all that goes with trademarks.

So even though the Draft Masters situation isn't a battle over trademarks, I'll respect the WCOFF's request and move on with our different style of game and proudly proclaim it as the Draft Champions League!!!

wlfskp · Post by **wlfskp** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:49 am

Good Answer Greg....