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Broadcasts and Promotions Related to |
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The NCAA
national men’s basketball tournament began on March 16, 2010, and end with
the men’s final on April 5th in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the
women’s tournament will begin on March 20th and end with the
women’s final on April 6th in San Antonio, Texas. Although station promotions related to the
tournaments are often very successful, especially when local teams advance in
the tournaments, they can lead to expensive litigation and damage awards if
the NCAA’s intellectual property rights are not respected by your station. Use of NCAA Trademarks The NCAA extensively licenses its trademarks, logos,
designs and other protected terminology for substantial fees. Accordingly, only licensed parties are
authorized to use this intellectual property. Moreover, the NCAA vigorously protects its
intellectual property rights and does not hesitate to take legal action to
enjoin violations of those rights. Activities designed to create the appearance
of a relationship between the NCAA and its tournaments and your station or
your advertisers (otherwise known as “ambush marketing”) are therefore
extremely risky to undertake. Any
unlicensed use of NCAA intellectual property for the sale or promotion of any
product or service is unlawful and can expose your station to charges of
trademark infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and/or
misappropriation of good will, which can result in monetary damages. Note also that the use of a disclaimer, such
as “not an official sponsor of the NCAA Tournament” provides little protection,
if any, from such claims. Accordingly,
we strongly recommend against any use of the NCAA’s intellectual property in
any station promotion (as opposed to news reporting, as discussed below) unless
explicitly authorized in writing to do so by the NCAA or its authorized
agents. For example, you may not say or print the following in
connection with station promotional events: ·
“NCAA” ·
“Final
Four,” “Sweet Sixteen,” “Elite Eight,” etc. ·
Any
team name or nickname (such as “Tar Heels” or “Heels”) · Any NCAA or
team logo You may, however, say or print: ·
“The
college basketball championships” ·
“The
national semifinals of the college basketball championship” ·
The
dates of the games ·
The
names of the colleges that are competing, but not the team names · You may
also make fun of the fact that you cannot say the phrase “Final Four” (such
as by bleeping it out) For your reference, a representative list of NCAA marks
is included with this memo. Contests Involving Unauthorized Distribution of Event
Tickets The NCAA and its authorized agents are the only legal
sources for the distribution of tournament tickets. By purchasing tickets to the tournaments,
the purchaser agrees to all of the terms and conditions on the ticket request
form and the printed ticket, which generally prohibit the use of the ticket
for advertising or promotional purposes. Therefore, your station should NOT run
any promotion where tickets to a tournament game are awarded, even if your
station validly purchased the tickets. The only exception to this is if your
station conducts a promotion with an official sponsor that has written
permission from the NCAA to allow tickets to be given away in contests or
promotions. In such cases, be sure to
confirm with the sponsor that it has the required authorization, and retain a
copy of this authorization for your files. News Reporting on the Tournaments The NCAA also holds the rights to all live accounts and
descriptions of the tournament games and events, and licenses these rights to
television and radio stations. Game
tickets may include a written prohibition on giving accounts of the games to
the media. Accordingly, unless your
station has obtained appropriate press credentials, do not broadcast reports
on an NCAA game from the venue while the game is on-going. This includes not only live radio and/or
television reporting from the venue, but live blogging, as well. Once a game has ended, you can report the
“news” of the game, such as a winner and the score. Your station must also obtain prior consent from the NCAA
or the local rights holder to use recorded highlights of the games and pre-
and post-game events that occurred inside the venue as part of station
newscasts and on station websites. Although the First Amendment allows the
media to report news on athletic events shortly after the event, it does not
protect a station that broadcasts footage or sound clips of an event, the
rights for which, in this case, are controlled and licensed by the NCAA or
the local rights holder. The NCAA must grant approval before the use of any NCAA
trademark or logo, including:
March 16, 2010 |
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This memorandum is intended only as a general discussion of these issues and should not be regarded as legal advice. We would be pleased to provide additional details or advice about specific situations if desired. Copyright © 2010, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
Suite 600 | Washington, DC 20006-1809 To Unsubscribe: Unsubscribe | To Update Client Info: Update Client Info |
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