wookiee_borg t1_izg8j4s wrote on December 8, 2022 at 9:49 PM

Reply to comment by ChezBoris in [Miller] Looks like the Ravens are trying to snag the trademark for ‘Charm City’ —one of Baltimore’s favorite nicknames that just about everyone uses. Application pending. by aresef

And my question is…have the ravens done that? There’s a ravens electrical, bad birds everything, half the businesses use ravens colors as part of their trade dress…but I haven’t heard of the Ravens sending out cease and desist letters. Has anyone been stopped by the team for infringement? Everyone is bringing up the ‘Hon’ thing, but my recollection was that that business had been involved in multiple litigations before that application.

Also, the application seems pretty explicitly focused on football-oriented gear. Even if the items themselves are not football in nature, the application only applies to items used to promote a football team. So is there a Charm City semi-pro team that would be put out by this, or a business putting out faux Ravens gear using Charm City that they are targeting? I just don’t see this as a broad attack on the city’s identity.

ChezBoris t1_izgtfjj wrote on December 9, 2022 at 12:19 AM

I am certain they try keep most legal activity VERY quiet... You would almost never hear about a cease & desist letters. I don't know anywhere you could search for it.

I don't know where to look for trademark lawsuits and I am not in the mood to search through all the lawsuits that the Ravens have been involved in (I am sure almost all of them have nothing to do with any IP stuff).

But here's a list of Trademark applications that the Ravens have opposed/disputed (if you read it over a number of the oppositions were rejected by the US Trademark office... ie: example 1, example 2). This strongly suggests that in some of the legal filings are of the legal "asshole" nature.

However, the idea that we should rely on billion dollar corporations to be stewards of shared cultural "artifacts" really confuses me... and honestly just exposes how the intellectual property legal world is so deeply misaligned with the way I think things should work.