‘Who Dat’ trademark fight is back
It’s funny that earlier in the year when the big bad NFL was trying to enforce it’s copyright (which it was lawfully entitled to do) everyone was all pissed and screaming “ahhh, you can’t take our heritage from us!” and “Nobody owns Who Dat! Ahhhh…it belongs to the city of NEEEW Orleans!”
And then David Vitter was all like [stupid Vitter voice]I was stunned to learn recently that the NFL is taking the position that it owns the exclusive trademark of the term “Who Dat” and has even threatened legal action against some mom-and-pop merchants selling t-shirts using the term. [/stupid Vitter voice]
And then the NFL decided it wasn’t worth it and everyone was all like, “We showed them!”
Now the same moms and pops and even the Saints themselves are being sued by some fellas who very well seem to be the rightful owners of the phrase.
I wonder who the hell everyone is going to get pissed at now? I mean shit, it was easy to finger the NFL back in January. I mean they are a big mean nasty corporation trying to protect their product. They were clearly wrong no matter what the law said right? The mom and pop shops had everyone’s support then. What about now.
Nobody owns Who Dat eh? Riiiiight.
Seriously. It’s time to say “Screw Dat.” It is mostly used obnoxiously these days. I just say “Geaux Saints” when I am looking to commiserate with a fellow fan anyway. I can’t tell you how many times drunk bastards in the Quarter, alone, toothless and looking for friends would holler it at me even though the Super Bowl was over months before. They weren’t doing it as a show of team spirit.
ah, but the difference is that the NFL never owned “who dat.” if anyone did, it was these other guys. that was my point in the first place. (i am a lawyer, but not an intellectual property lawyer. this isn’t legal advice.) the reason it was such an outrage that the NFL was lashing out at these people is that they didn’t have standing to do it.
if these “who dat, inc.” guys legitimately owned the phrase, they’ll win the day. if they didn’t, they won’t. this is 100 times more legitimate than the NFL’s spurious claims.
But the NFL said at the time, “”Any unauthorized use of the Saints colors and other [marks] designed to create the illusion of an affiliation with the Saints is equally a violation of the Saints trademark rights because it allows a third party to ‘free ride’ by profiting from confusion of the team’s fans, who want to show support for the Saints.”
So it wasn’t trying to own Who Dat. If the phrase Who Dat had been written in green and gold, or purple and white, or red and silver, or any other colors but black and gold, it wouldn’t have been an issue. The NFL claimed to own shit that was clearly intended to be Saints related without licensing. But someone screamed, “Dey trying to take Who Dat!” and the hysteria began.
These guys, however do claim they own the entire phrase. And if you want to holler it that’s fine but you write it on one single piece of merchandise that you either want to sell or use as a marketing tool, you need to pay up. So somebody does indeed own Who Dat. Just not the big bad NFL.
Same big bad NFL came to Jackson Square and screwed a ton of small businesses out of money but apparently that issue didn’t really get at people the way the Who Dat thing did.
the NFL can say that until the cows come home. doesn’t make it the law. they’re just trying to bully people.
and like i said before, if these other guys really do have the claim, by all means, let them enforce it. i do find it funny that they didn’t care until the team got good, but that’s not how the law works.
That’s the perception yes but I doubt there was a board meeting by the NFL where they decided to get together and bully people. Corporations, evil as they are, have the right to protect their copyrights same as anyone else. Same thing happened a few years back when day care providers were painting images of Mickey Mouse on the sides of their buildings. Disney was looked at as evil because they enforced their copyright. But the first time some baby gets shook to death in there and the TV news starts filming, it beomes obvious why Disney may want some sort of creative control over their own image. Same with the NFL. They have the right to protect their own image so there isn’t confusion over what is or isn’t sanctioned or licensed by the NFL. T-Shirt shops know what they are doing when they encroach on copyright.
A cause worth stumping about is the health care issues of former players, they dyin out there.
We need to protect essential citizenry like Fleurty Girl, the folks who sell $30 Saints t-shirts on Magazine, and rest of the johnny-come-lately douchebaggery that jumped on the bandwagon last year.