‘Super Bowl’ v ‘Superb Owl’: only a birdbrain would be confused, says applicant
An organisation that applied to trademark ‘Superb Owl’ has told WIPR that the National Football League’s (NFL) opposition to its application is “rather silly” and has set up a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the legal costs of fighting the dispute.
The Night Run, based in Arizona, created the campaign on crowdfunding website GoFundMe on Monday, July 20. It is seeking to raise $50,000, its estimated legal costs of fighting the NFL’s challenge to its application.
Any money raised is intended to “offset costs associated with defending our trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)”, the group wrote on its campaign.
Earlier this week, WIPR reported that the NFL filed an opposition to The Night Run’s trademark application for ‘Superb Owl’.
Citing its own registered US trademarks for the ‘Super Bowl’, the name of its annual showpiece event, the NFL claimed that ‘Superb Owl’ would cause a likelihood of confusion.
Since 2012, The Night Run has regularly organised five and eight kilometre running events. Participants are awarded a medal with the words ‘Superb Owl’ written on it and some runners dress up as owls during races.
But Tricia Shafer, event director at The Night Run, told WIPR that she finds the NFL’s opposition “rather silly”.
“Only a birdbrain would confuse an owl-themed charity fun run with the NFL’s championship game. We trust that the NFL will come to its senses and hope that it will refrain from becoming a bully,” she said.
Shafer said she was prompted to register the trademark after she discovered comedian Stephen Colbert was running a parody segment on his television show “The Colbert Report” called “Superb Owl” in January 2014.
“We figured that Colbert had registered the mark, and were surprised when we went on the USPTO website and discovered that he had not. So we filed an application—simply to establish that we had used it first.”
The Night Run filed the trademark application in July 2014.
Shafer said she is aware of the size of the task in front of her, but is optimistic that The Night Run can prevail in the dispute.
“$50,000 is a lot of money to us, but it is a mere drop in the bucket to our opposition”, she said.
“We trust that as well-financed individuals and corporations learn of the NFL’s opposition, they still want to support us in standing up for our innovation, creativity and the integrity of our mark.”
The Night Run has until August 8 to respond to the NFL’s opposition.
The NFL had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication but we will update the story should the organisation get in touch.
