Every year it’s the same thing: Several weeks before the Super Bowl®, people and businesses wishing to promote events related to the timing of the biggest sporting event of the season — the Super Bowl®, that is, the National Football League’s championship game — go through all sorts of contortions to avoid saying the trademark-protected words, Super Bowl. Most frequently ad copywriters and broadcast announcers used the phrase, “the big game,” until last year they were intimidated out of even that tepid use of a descriptive word by the league as well.

This year should be no different, and you can already hear the litigation terror bubbling up on sports radio and elsewhere. Want to tell people they can get a great price on a new large-screen HDTV on which to watch the Super Bowl®? No way! You can’t say that on TV! People will think the TV is an Official Super Bowl® Broadcast Entertainment and Enjoyment Partner! And so on. There is no fair use of trademarks when it comes to the Super Bowl® — right?

Of course not right.

I would love to collect Super Bowl® trademark workarounds that people see in the various media and post them on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®. But… I need your help in order to get up a nice collection in time for the

SUPER BOWL®!

So please spread the word, keep your eyes and ears open, and send submissions to me at likelihoodofconfusion at GMAIL. If we get enough submissions we can make a contest out of it. It could be the SUPER BOWL® of IP Blawging submission contests, no?

Originally posted 2013-11-14 14:25:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter