Bills File Trademark application on BillsMafia

[Stanley Lombardi]

Louie "the Pipe" is not pleased.  Pegulas can expect a knock, a single knock, on their door.

[MAJBobby]

Man they must have some ***** marketing and idea people.  First they rip off Dels concept for one off design shirts to help charities with their "New" Player designed shirts.

 

Now trademarking a Fan #

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:48 PM, Chandler#81 said:

 

omg. Lighten tf up. What’s the 1st word in Billsmafia?

Bingo. #Trademark rights

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Bills is a Common Word.  #JustSaying.

 

But hey Pegulas are enjoying ripping off fan ideas. See Player designed T-Shirts

[BringMetheHeadofLeonLett]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:48 PM, Chandler#81 said:

 

omg. Lighten tf up. What’s the 1st word in Billsmafia?

Bingo. #Trademark rights

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I dunno, it's a pretty cheap move by the Bills organization. Should Snyder have the right to trademark Football Team?

[Freddie's Dead]

  On 10/16/2020 at 5:17 PM, Mr. WEO said:

Someone involved with “BillsMafia”  should have anticipated this and trademarked it first.  

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It's hard to trademark when you have someone else's mark involved.

[Sherlock Holmes]

  On 10/16/2020 at 4:08 PM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Steady on here, guys.  As I understand, they're trademarking that particular logo.

 

But if they are trying to trademark the whole term and go after anyone else using it....it is a really poor look

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But of course nothing negative can be said about it as I would imagine you would incur the wrath of the banhammer 

[Lurker]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:52 PM, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

I dunno, it's a pretty cheap move by the Bills organization. Should Snyder have the right to trademark Football Team?

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Bad analogy.    "Washington Football Team" is a legal entity.    "Football team" is not....

[LeGOATski]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:52 PM, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

I dunno, it's a pretty cheap move by the Bills organization. Should Snyder have the right to trademark Football Team?

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I wouldn't be surprised if he tried....

[Chandler#81]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:50 PM, MAJBobby said:

Man they must have some ***** marketing and idea people.  First they rip off Dels concept for one off design shirts to help charities with their "New" Player designed shirts.

 

Now trademarking a Fan #

Bills is a Common Word.  #JustSaying.

 

But hey Pegulas are enjoying ripping off fan ideas. See Player designed T-Shirts

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pfffffft!🤬

 

Yeah, right. It wasn’t meant for the “Buffalo Bills”. It was meant for all men named William.

gimmeabreak🤦‍♂️

[RoyBatty is alive]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:56 PM, LeGOATski said:

I wouldn't be surprised if he tried....

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Bet he or someone in the organization did.

[BringMetheHeadofLeonLett]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:55 PM, Lurker said:

 

Bad analogy.    "Washington Football Team" is a legal entity.    "Football team" is not....

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Well it's not 'Buffalo Bills Mafia'

 

 

on a side note, I don't know why I'm arguing the side I am- I'm luke-warm on putting Bills & Mafia together in the first place haha. 

[Lurker]

  On 10/16/2020 at 4:08 PM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Steady on here, guys.  As I understand, they're trademarking that particular logo.

 

But if they are trying to trademark the whole term and go after anyone else using it....it is a really poor look

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They're also trademaking the term Bills Mafia in a separate application:

 

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=90248260&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:54 PM, Sherlock Holmes said:

But of course nothing negative can be said about it as I would imagine you would incur the wrath of the banhammer 

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WTF you talking about?  Like this forum is full of pink unicorns farting gold sparkles or something?

[MAJBobby]

 

[NoSaint]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:37 PM, MAJBobby said:

Just like there are no Player brands without the Buffalo Bills. Should they start trademarking those?

Bills Never controlled Bills Mafia that was a grassroots fan thing. They didn’t have to protect anything. It wasn’t theirs 

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the term bills would be the issue.

 

if it were buffalo football mafia it’s a different issue. 
 

as a fan do you think you can coin phrases using the team name and profit off them?

[Lurker]

The team owns the "Bills" word mark, so technically the use of "Bills Mafia" was a violation of that.   They are just cleaning up that ommission by filing the new trademark application.

 

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4804:706h1p.2.53

 

[NoSaint]

  On 10/16/2020 at 5:27 PM, Mr. WEO said:

So a phrase “Bills” followed by any word cannot be trademarked other than by Pegula?

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To sell football gear? No. 

[RoyBatty is alive]

  On 10/16/2020 at 7:09 PM, NoSaint said:

the term bills would be the issue.

 

if it were buffalo football mafia it’s a different issue. 
 

as a fan do you think you can coin phrases using the team name and profit off them?

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Where you the one that brought up the Saints trademarking the name "who dat'?  That was a great analogy to what is being discussed here.

[Putin]

This is some mafia bs !!

[Blokestradamus]

  On 10/16/2020 at 7:08 PM, MAJBobby said:

 

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Robyn is the nicest person on Earth. If you've pissed her off, you done ***** up.

[dpberr]

  On 10/16/2020 at 6:31 PM, LABILLBACKER said:

This is the part I don't get. They had to know the narrative of BillsMafia. Did some marketing dude just pitch them to say F it and let's get some more merch revenue. The optics of this is terrible but each and every day I see money push ethics aside. And it will never end.

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It's always a consultant's fault.  Always.  Every bad idea in corporate America started with a consultant trying to be clever.

 

My hot take on all this - the Bills are very focused on revenue recapture by any and all means necessary, so no idea is too wild.

 

I just think the couple bucks they will make in sweatshirt sales is nowhere near the offset of the negative publicity and fan base reaction.