Opinion : Super Bowl: Defending the stolen trademark

After deciding 50 years ago to steal the Super Ball name for its championship game, the NFL has fervently gone to court to keep businesses, and even churches, from using the word "Super Bowl." Perhaps you saw an ad on TV, or a flier in a newspaper, or some other form of advertising that refers to Sunday's NFL Championship Game between the Patriots and Falcons as "the big game."� Why, you may wonder, don't they just say "Super Bowl?"� Because, they can't - at least not without having the NFL and its trademark lawyers suing them. Every year, someone gets in BIG TROUBLE for violating what the NFL says are the laws protecting the Super Bowl. (By the way, we can use that term in news stories to describe the game, but our advertisers are sternly warned to not do it, or else!) One year, for example, a cigar store owner near the stadium where the "Big Game"� was take place wanted to put up a banner that reads "Super Bowl"� to help his area of the business district (and, yes, to bring in more customers). But he received a stern warning and faced the prospect that despite having tens of thousands of tourists in his neighborhood, the Super Bowl will probably mean less business for him. And a few years ago, the NFL targeted churches. Yes, you heard it right. Many churches received nasty legal correspondence from those NFL lawyers, warning them to not have a Super Bowl party. That's right: The NFL will not stand for churches letting people fill the pews to watch their "Big Game,"� and any House of God who tries to do this could end up in the house of justice. Obviously, the NFL has not thought this through. When people go to churches to see the Super Bowl, they are seeing all of the Super Bowl ads (from companies who pay a few million per 30-second commercial) on screens that are much bigger. And those people who watch the game in such public places are much less likely to change the channel or leave the room during commercial breaks. The NFL should be asking churches and every other organization to host a Super Bowl party. This year, some people tried to organize a giant Super Bowl party at the Georgia Dome, so Falcons fans could gather one last time at the historic stadium (which will soon be demolished) to see their team on the Jumbotron (although I am sure "Jumbotron"� is another copyright name for a stadium screen, even if it is made by another company). But, of course, they did not allow it, because of their copyright rules. For some reason, they fear that 50,000 people watching the game at the stadium means 50,000 less people watching the game. Silly. The silliest thing, however, about all of these "Super Bowl"� trademark lawsuits and the constant whining from NFL bosses about trademark or copyright infringement is that the NFL has its lawyers writing nasty-grams and going to court to defend a trademark that they stole from someone else. Lamar Hunt, the late Kansas City Chiefs owner, was among the group of men responsible for organizing and promoting the first NFL Championship Game. But the NFL, seeing all the "Bowl"� games of college football, wanted a unique name to set their championship contest from previous games, and to help indicate to the public the way the league had changed. Hunt watched his kids playing with a cute little rubber ball - the Wham-o Super Ball - that bounced all over when his children threw it. So he started, as a joke, saying "Super Bowl."� Hunt - who said that phrase was "far too corny"� to become the official title of this very important contest, wrote to NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1966. "If possible, I believe we should coin a phrase for the Championship Game. I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon,"� he told Rozelle. Apparently, the NFL could not improve upon it, so that "far too corny"� Super Bowl name - brazenly stolen from the Wham-O Company - has identified the NFL's biggest event for LI years. So, not only is the NFL acting the part of a bully, it's going to court to keep others from using a name it stole from someone else. I hope that somewhere, this year, some business has published an ad or commercial similar to the one I created for this story. And when they end up in court, I hope they have the foresight to cover the courtroom floor with Super Balls. That way, the judge could see that the NFL clearly has no standing to sue in such cases.