Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we take a look at one of the most prominent sports slogans in use today and the interesting legal wrangling going on behind the scenes about use of the slogan.
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp35
The 12th Man is a slogan used primarily with football teams to refer to the fans backing the team in the bleachers. It is particularly associated with the Seattle Seahawks, who embrace the title so much that fans wave flags with the number 12 on it. With Seattle playing in the most recent two Super Bowls, some may just assume this prominent slogan is a Seattle based thing.
However, The 12th Man is actually registered as a trademark by a completely different football program, and Seattle has had to negotiate just to maintain the rights to allow its use! Even sports fandom cannot escape the craziness of IP law.
The actual owner of the trademark on The 12th Man is Texas A&M University, and the story behind this slogan is fantastic. In short, a 1922 game between the Aggies and Centre College was so riddled with injuries that A&M had zero reserve players left to put in the game if another player got hurt. So the coach recruited a young man from the stands and had him suit up just in case another body was needed. Even though that 12th man never had to go in the game, the story became legend in Texas and the Aggie fans adopted the moniker The 12th Man.
After using the mark for many decades, Texas A&M began applying for and procuring the trademarks in the 1980's and 1990's. A&M has then sent a number of cease and desist letters to other professional and collegiate football teams using the trademark. When Seattle ramped up marketing efforts behind this slogan in 2005, A&M sued the Seahawks and the litigation ended up in settlement and a license agreement.
Under the license, the Seahawks can use any rendition of the number 12 on flags, shirts, and other merchandise (and they do, as evidenced by the iconic flag above), but this merchandise must remain distinguished from the full 12th Man mark. That's why the iconic flag has only the number 12 on it.
This license is expected to end in 2016, which means either Seattle will find alternative 12 brands of their own to market to fans or renegotiate the license and pay Texas A&M. It will be interesting to see what the Seahawks ownership group chooses to do, although it is notable that the company owning the Seahawks various IP has pending trademark applications on 12's, We are 12, and The 12's, all of which are apparently used pretty commonly already by Seattle fans. Not that there's anything Borg like about "We are 12," but I digress.
The Bottom Line: the passion of sports fans will not be abated by little things like trademark lawsuits, but it is interesting to see programs do battle in court over something seemingly so silly as what moniker the fans choose to use. Seattle fans will continue to enjoy the spirit of the 12th Man moniker, and if their team would just learn to run the ball on the 1 yard line, everything would be great.
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Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
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