Another College Football Trademark Dispute

About two years ago, the University of Southern California asserted its rights to use "USC" against University of South Carolina who wanted to use the those letters on its athletic uniforms.  Southern California prevailed and South Carolina cannot use those letters even though those letters are the initials of the school.

Now, the University of Alabama has been in a long battle with an artist named Daniel Moore.  Mr. Moore is an artist in Alabama who depicts scenes from the University of Alabama football games. The dispute revolves around Mr. Moore's use of Alabama's Crimson and White colors.  The Crimson Tide have spent an enormous amount of money in legal expenses against Mr. Moore.  Mr. Moore won the first round in the District Court which ruled that he had a First Amendment right to paint the scenes, but it did not allow him to use his paintings in other mediums (i.e. mugs, t-shirts, etc.).

Both sides appealed and are now awaiting a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal.  This is not the first time that a District Court of Appeal had to decide an intellectual property issue between an artist and a sports team/person.  In 2003, Tiger Woods sued an artist to prevent him from selling prints derived from his painting of Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Masters.  That court, the 6th Circuit, essentially held that the First Amendment trumped Mr. Woods intellectual property rights.

Interestingly, Bear Bryant asked Mr. Moore to commemorate Mr. Bryant's bypassing the record of Amos Alonzo Stagg for coaching victories.  Several of Mr. Moore's paintings are on display at the Paul W. Bryant Museum on Alabama's campus.  Clearly, Mr. Moore is not only an artist, but he is a fan.

So, what is going on here?  Big money is.  College football has become such a huge moneymaker that the teams are doing everything they can to capitalize on and control the use of their logos, image, and colors. Should the 11th Circuit side with the Tide, it could lead to a chilling of news or magazine reporting of Colleges or games.  Could a newspaper print a photo from the game when reporting on the team?  Maybe not.  That seems like it would be gutting the First Amendment in favor of intellectual property rights.  Stay tuned.