Bills File Trademark application on BillsMafia

[Mr. WEO]

2 hours ago, NoSaint said:

To sell football gear? No. 

for any purpose 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

4 hours ago, BuffaloMatt said:

I have never been too fond of its use.   

 

Ma·fi·a

/ˈmäfēə/

noun

1. an organized international body of criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now especially in Italy and the US and having a complex and ruthless behavioral code.

   • any organized group using extortion and other criminal methods.

     noun: mafia; plural noun: mafias
   • a closed group of people in a particular field, having a controlling influence.

     noun: mafia

     "the conservative top tennis mafia"

We need to have our Mafia give some of these officials a visit. 

[RiotAct]

1 hour ago, 4_kidd_4 said:

 

Ha. Some ol’ BBMB blowhards still blowin’ hard, apparently.

 

At least TheBlackBear was occasionally amusing...”ya big dummy” 😂 

anyone remember WideRight/MrRight?  He was the ultimate troll

[BADOLBILZ]

 

If you've been going to Bills games and tailgating religiously during the playoff drought you would have likely noticed that the fanbase had more and more become it's own entity.

 

I think every group developed their own "the Bills organization doesn't show up every week but we do" mentality to deal with the ineptitude and seeming lack of commitment to winning.

 

The whole Schefter "Bills Mafia" thing..........though lame on the surface.........was a very good moniker for an angry and defensive fanbase to create their own identity around the league while showing support for their franchise.

 

I don't think it's really right for fans to cash in using the Bills name and likeness..........but the Bills organization had it coming and I think the fact that they let the copyright infringements go for this long reflects an understanding of that.

 

Now that the organization is both committed to winning and has some competent people in charge I think it's great for the two entities to be as one and for the benefit of the football organization.

 

This is probably as good as this procedure could have ended.

 

I don't throw around an abundance of props to the Pegula's but they've been really good stewards on this issue.

[YoloinOhio]

28 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

anyone remember WideRight/MrRight?  He was the ultimate troll

I do unfortunately 

[That's No Moon]

Good way to kill off that brand. Make it corporate and uncool. Chet and Muffy in the Bills Mafia club level. I can see it now.

[YoloinOhio]

5 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

What would posters be less likely to purchase?:

 

1) an $8 glass of juice from “Healthy Scratch”

 

2) a official Bills Mafia (TM) tee shirt

How much alcohol did they add to the juice?

[That's No Moon]

Just now, YoloinOhio said:

How much alcohol did they add to the juice?

Well one is $8 and the other will be $25 before tax so it's more like 3 juices.

[WideNine]

Not entirely unexpected if you think about how business and marketing works. My son had the chance with a school program to talk with the CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings (not sure which one), and he enjoyed a story that he/she relayed of how for years Buffalo Wild Wings HQ fought the urban dictionary slang "B Dubs" that had stuck for their franchises.

 

They set about purging references, creating internal policies forbidding its use, and correcting internal and external references using it until one day the light bulb finally flickered on and someone said, "why don't we just go with the flow and use it".

 

It worked of course, and was a very successful marketing tool - all restaurants are suffering now, but that is not the point.

 

I am sure the butterfly kicked someone at OBD in the head with how the reference has taken off and has ubiquitous use throughout the media and they have made the move to officially embrace it.

 

Certainly interesting to see how this plays out, but if you look beyond the fear and fuss I think you also see an organization that is trying to stay in tune with their fan base, and yes likely also looking to profit using it in some manner.

 

 

[Captain Caveman]

I haven't read the whole thread, but it could be that they needed to do this to protect their existing "Bills" trademark.  From stuff I've read in the past, if a company doesn't uniformly enforce existing trademarks (e.g. Bills, Buffalo Bills, etc...) then they risk losing the rights to that trademark, or risk being unable to enforce use of it going forward.  They could have had their hands forced if others started printing Bills Mafia gear (which I think is already readily available on lots of different sites with different people profiting.)

 

This wouldn't prevent them from registering the trademark and then selling the rights to Del for 1$ or working something out with him.

[prissythecat]

I am not a fan of the Bills Mafia moniker.  And have always wondered how Mafia designates anything special about Buffalo.  

[WideNine]

1 minute ago, prissythecat said:

I am not a fan of the Bills Mafia moniker.  And have always wondered how Mafia designates anything special about Buffalo.  

Tongue and cheek reference only maybe elluding to an idea that we fans are everywhere hidden in plain site and it was almost criminal to keep rooting for the team.

 

Not exactly Cosa nostra material.

 

Either way, you cannot deny it has stuck.

 

 

 

[Rubes]

2 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

miss hearing from wyo.....

 

She's plenty active on Twitter if you miss her that much.

 

[Chandler#81]

2 hours ago, Gene1973 said:

Sigh, I hate the mafia moniker and want it to die.

I did as well, for a long time. Hoped it would just run its course, but it has just caught on so strongly I’ve have to just shrug and buy in.

it coincides with our return to prominence and the national exposure.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Large powerful organizations have to be careful about using trademarks, even unregistered ones, that are already being used by smaller, less powerful folks.  The  first  user of the trademark is called the "senior user," while the party that has only more recently begun using the trademark is known as the "junior user."

 

Don't believe me?  Here's proof:

 

From the 1995 opinion of a federal judge in the Southern District of NY, found here:

 

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/895/616/1570620/

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Before proceeding to discuss the likelihood of consumer confusion, the court notes that the current matter is unlike the ordinary case in which a senior user, having generated considerable public awareness and recognition around its own trademark, complains that consumers will be led to believe that, as a result of a junior user's confusingly similar mark or trade dress, the senior user is the source of the junior user's goods. The variety of confusion thus described, also known as "forward confusion", represents the classical case where the junior user is said to trade on the good will built by the plaintiff in its own mark. Here, however, Sunenblick claims that defendants' use of the MCA/UPTOWN RECORDS trademark is likely to result in "reverse confusion", i.e., the phenomenon in which the junior user's advertising so greatly overshadows that of the senior user that consumers come to the mistaken conclusion that the junior user is in fact the source of the senior user's goods. 2 McCarthy, supra, at § 23.1(E).

 

This Circuit has held that proof of a likelihood of reverse confusion supports a claim for infringement under the Lanham Act. See Banff, Ltd. v. Federated Dept. Stores, Inc., 841 F.2d 486, 490-91 (2d Cir.1988) ("[w]ere reverse confusion not a sufficient basis to obtain Lanham Act protection, a larger company could, with impunity, infringe the senior mark of a smaller one")."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

A full analysis of all the considerations relevant to this issue are well beyond the scope of this post, but as the potential "junior user," the Buffalo Bills football team has to be wary of "reverse confusion" trademark infringement claims if it does not strike some sort of deal with a smaller, far less powerful, "senior user."

 

At least, that's what my "other brother" Darryl says.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead
fix typo

[Teddy KGB]

6 hours ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

How many of you people have briefly met, known or dealt with a real Mafia member?

 

You keel your lips shut. 
 

or else 

 

6 hours ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

Del Reid is an idiot for using the term Mafia in the first place. 
 

he probably has no clue who the Mafia is or represented 

 

 

6 hours ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

yes I am.  
 

I lived in an area where the Mob was prevalent 

 

I was in a restaurant that had pipe bombs thrown at an hour after I left the place. 
 

in their presence you never used the word Mafia

 

We’ve all seen the Sopranos, take it easy Scorsese.    
 

 

[LeGOATski]

55 minutes ago, ICanSleepWhenI'mDead said:

Large powerful organizations have to be careful about using trademarks, even unregistered ones, that are already being used by smaller, less powerful folks. 

 Reading into Del's remarks at the top of the thread, it seems that the Bills have already covered their asses on this one....

[Lurker]

1 hour ago, prissythecat said:

I am not a fan of the Bills Mafia moniker.  And have always wondered how Mafia designates anything special about Buffalo.  

 

Agreed. 

 

I prefer Bills Yakuza myself...

[Don Otreply]

You all just have to know this was coming, a small  organization that was using the name of a multi billion dollar valued corporate entity surely realized this was inevitable, don’t ya think ?? I suspect this will pass an just become part of the Buffalo Bills and never to be thought of as unusual a half of a year out from now.
 

Ya just can’t start calling your group something like the Microsoft Mafia and not think you wouldn’t get a knock on the door one day from Microsoft’s people, it’s really that straight forward. That, and the politicians “we” (the greater we) all voted for wrote the legislation that makes this S O P, a long time ago. 🤔 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Don Otreply

[YoloinOhio]

The Bills legally could have acted on a Bills Mafia trademark without Reid’s, Wille’s or Harris’ blessing. The previous Bills Mafia logo was a buffalo and the word “mafia,” things that can’t be trademarked.

The Bills always could have applied their trademarked lettering or, say, their trademarked standing buffalo with the word “mafia” and sold gobs of paraphernalia.

“They didn’t have to reach out to me,” Reid said. “They could have taken this and done whatever they wanted. Instead, they asked me to be a part of it. Now I have the opportunity to tell the story on their platform.”

Edited October 17, 2020 by YoloinOhio