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 #

2 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

 

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

Bingo. #Trademark rights

Bills is a Common Word.  #JustSaying.

 

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

[BringMetheHeadofLeonLett]

2 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

 

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

Bingo. #Trademark rights

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

[Freddie's Dead]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

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

 

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

[Sherlock Holmes]

2 hours ago, 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

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

[Lurker]

1 minute ago, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

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

 

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

[LeGOATski]

3 minutes ago, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

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

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

[Chandler#81]

3 minutes ago, 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

pfffffft!🤬

 

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

gimmeabreak🤦‍♂️

[RoyBatty is alive]

1 minute ago, LeGOATski said:

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

Bet he or someone in the organization did.

[BringMetheHeadofLeonLett]

1 minute ago, Lurker said:

 

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

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]

2 hours ago, 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

 

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]

9 minutes ago, 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 

 

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

[MAJBobby]

 

[NoSaint]

30 minutes ago, 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 

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]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

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

To sell football gear? No. 

[RoyBatty is alive]

1 minute ago, 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?

 

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]

4 minutes ago, MAJBobby said:

 

 

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

[dpberr]

41 minutes ago, 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.

 

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.