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Cleveland Guardians Offseason Discussion 2021-22

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
macbdog said:
Who in their right mind is going to confuse a pro baseball team and a roller derby club? The answer is no one. Both can have the same name, and the baseball club owes no royalties to them. And they don't own the name or likeness of the guardians either; if anyone does, it's the city who owns the statues that both have taken their name from- especially the roller derby team, who clearly use the statues in their own logo. Did they get clearance from the city to attempt a claim on the name and likeness? Chime in, resident insider lawyers, on if their case appears to have much merit, because my cursory law knowledge based upon years of Peoples Court, Judge Judy and Allie McBeal tell me this is a bunch of hooey.
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Tell Vince McMahon when he lost the WWF to the World Wildlife Fund.
 
Steve_424 said:
From the AP:

Mark Sommers, a Washington-based trademark attorney for the Finnegan law firm, said a judge would have to determine whether the Guardians name will cause confusion for fans who follow both the baseball and roller derby teams.

“If there's no intersect between the two brands, there's no likelihood of confusion,” Sommers said.

The lawsuit is likely to settle before it reaches trial, Sommers said.

“Money is a great influencer of resolving trademark cases,” he said. “The field of play, as it were, is best resolved through negotiation and resolution than a court of law.”
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Right. But first, a judge will have to determine if the roller derby team has a legitimate claim to the trademark. If they do, then in all likelihood they will rule that what the baseball team is doing is infringing on their trademarks and their ability to do business in the area.


Mr. Orange said:
It’s a money grab. Like everything in this capitalist hellscape. Get it while you can…
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Pretty shitty place we’ve arrived in in this country if the little guy attempting to protect their intellectual property is a cash grab, but the big business trying to take something that’s not theirs is fine. Business as usual I guess.

The point remains, if the situation was reversed, the baseball team would’ve sent a cease & desist to the roller derby team, and if they continued to use it after, they’d find themselves with a lawsuit on their hands.

If it actually goes to court, it will reveal that either the Baseball team failed to do their due diligence while selecting the name, or they intentionally played dumb thinking they could bully the Roller Derby team. Either way, looks really bad for the Baseball Team.

Given what we’ve seen from the fallout of the Washington Football Team investigation, I’m sure the Baseball team wants zero part of a lawsuit that would require investigators to comb through emails and other communications to determine when the Baseball team first knew about the Roller derby team, and if once they found out, did they attempt to negotiate in good faith?
 
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What if Dolan simply Buys the roller derby team? Or hell, the entire league?

What's a sport like that really worth, anyway? 5 figures?
 
Benway said:
What if Dolan simply Buys the roller derby team? Or hell, the entire league?

What's a sport like that really worth, anyway? 5 figures?
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Sure, if he wanted to buy it two years ago, but the baseball teams actions have now inflated the value of the Guardians name, whether the baseball team gains rights to use it or not.

Hell, after all this they could probably create an ironically themed Cleveland Guardians t-shirt/apparel line that would bring in much more than 5 figures a year.
 
Bob_The_Cat said:
Pretty shitty place we’ve arrived in in this country if the little guy attempting to protect their intellectual property is a cash grab, but the big business trying to take something that’s not theirs is fine. Business as usual I guess.
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They didn't apply for a trademark until well after the baseball team did.

It's a cash grab because they're barely even operating as is - they've hosted a few competitions but their last season was I believe 2018. They said they started recruiting for a 2022 season the day after the baseball team's announcement - coincidence I'm sure!
 
Steve_424 said:
They didn't apply for a trademark until well after the baseball team did.

It's a cash grab because they're barely even operating as is - they've hosted a few competitions but their last season was I believe 2018. They said they started recruiting for a 2022 season the day after the baseball team's announcement - coincidence I'm sure!
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Look man, I’m done going back-and-forth with you on this. It sounds like your only experience with this type of thing is reading articles. If that's incorrect, then I apologize. I said it before and I’ll say it again one last time. I work in brand design & development, and I primarily work with college & professional athletes and in professional sports. Everything I do revolves around content rights and intellectual property rights. I’m a creative by profession so I have to have a pretty good understanding of how this stuff works in the real world and not just in theory. I have IP lawyers I work directly with on a regular basis. I’ve personally filed multiple trademarks for my own businesses, and through players and other entities I’ve worked with it’s been 30+ filings on trademarks and copyrights.

Just because the roller derby team didn’t file a trademark initially doesn’t mean that they don’t own or can't claim ownership that intellectual property. There are laws to help protect creators as well as people who start running a business and don’t file a trademark. Can’t repeat myself enough. I’ve even posted direct links to information from USPTO.Gov on the matter.

In fact, I'm dealing with a similar situation right now. As a contractor, I have a company who failed provide me with a valid contract. In my line of work, any contract typically stipulates that as part of the agreement the CREATOR is signing all rights of ownership to the other party. Since there was no contract, it means they were paying me for the SERVICE I provided and not OWNERSHIP of creation, meaning that I still own everything I created for them at this point, they are using it with my permission, and if they want to gain ownership of the work they have to negotiate that with me and it needs to be signed over via a contract. Otherwise, BY LAW I maintain all ownership and can dictate when, how, and where they can use those assets. BUT WAIT! I NEVER FILED ANY TRADEMARKS! SILLY ME!

The same applies to a business, and it is why the trademarking option of "Use In Commerce" exists. The fact is, if you file a trademark, that doesn’t immediately entitle you to ownership. It has to be approved. That means it’s irrelevant in this case who filed the trademark first. Do you even know how long it takes to get a trademark approved? The general answer is 6-10 months, but I currently have one I filed in June 2020 and I’m just now hitting the final stages of the approval process, and that’s without any type of dispute or conflict from a third party. Sure, MLB can likely accelerate things, but trademarking and copywriting isn’t some instant process that the first person to field a claim instantly takes ownership regardless of anything else.

The fact that they were hardly using it is irrelevant. That doesn't give anyone permission to just steal it and use for themselves.
 
I thought "season" in terms of roller derby would just be more like a concert tour schedule where they go around to different cities that both clubs agree on. In this case they did compete in 2019 and then the pandemic hit.
 
For me, I would think the roller derby would want the judge to rule that the two names can co-exist due to no confusion in use. Why?

Two main revenue sources that they do have

1) .com name which should be worth more than the 4 figures the Indians offered

2) As they have used the name before and thus have some rights to continue to use it fir their branding, they should hire a branding agent and graphic artist to design tshirts of what non-flash fans wanted the new logo to be (statues). Get a stand downtown pre-game (to market their sport/use) and look at the money they can make if they avoid using the same font and silly G-baseball trademarks. If something catches on, sell their trademark design to the Indians.
 
First, raise your hand if you've ever heard of this roller derby team before this present controversy. Just give me a break.
Dolan should just buy the roller derby team, and rename them. Or hell, just buy the whole damn league. They could have a post-game roller derby match at Progressive Field.
Could we just move on and try to find a real outfielder?
 
Benway said:
What if Dolan simply Buys the roller derby team? Or hell, the entire league?

What's a sport like that really worth, anyway? 5 figures?
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Does the roller derby team have an actual owner? I guess I just assumed it was a club sport.
 
The team formerly known as the "Indians" appeared to have offered a token "treaty" to the actual inhabitants of "Guardian" land.

There should have been NO issue here at all, but now it seems to me the baseball team figured it could just steamroll over the little guys and take what they want..

The irony.

I find this look rather unappealing and sad clown funny. This should have been settled MONTHS ago, and that makes the baseball team seem sleazy to me. No heap good faith just heap bad medicine.
 
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