By now, the commercials have hit the airwaves talking about "The Big Game." And by now, you know which "Big Game" they are talking about. Why don't they just come out and call it the Super Bowl like everybody else?
Because the NFL says they can't.
I came across a blog entry from a few years back from Copyfutures, a site dealing with copyrights and advertising.
According to the site, the NFL holds the property rights to all phrases dealing with the Super Bowl for advertising purposes, which means you can't say or print:
- Super Bowl
- Super Sunday
- The Super Bowl logo
- “NFL”, “AFC”, or “NFC”
- National Football League
- American Football Conference
- National Football Conference
- Team nicknames such as Steelers or Cardinals
You can say "the Big Game", "The Professional Football Championship", "Pittsburgh", and "Arizona".
Click Here for how the NFL is able to control the uses of these phrases, considered their property.
In the past, the NFL has cracked down on Super Bowl Big Game parties, which included a party at a church last year, and Las Vegas casinos.
When planning your party or get together for the "Annual World Championship Game of Football on the Sabbath", keep in mind that the NFL may be lurking around the corner.
That is a bunch of bull. Freedom of speech allows anybody to say Super Bowl. The only thing a copyright does is keep you from printing it without permission.
Posted by: Sally | January 29, 2009 at 06:45 PM