Sports and Branding: The Anatomy of The JOHNNY FOOTBALL Branding and Trademark Strategy

Over the past several years, the proliferation of trademark filings by athletes and their personal management companies has reflected a growing trend in sports branding that has athletes increasingly taking control of the mechanisms that make money for athletes and sports teams.  

While many sports contracts have athletes assigning over many of the rights in their personal brand to teams and sports organizations, the filing of trademark applications by athletes themselves shows how bold new strategies are working to shift the balance in this traditionally pro-team economic system. 

Below, Johnny Manziel's branding strategy is shown to focus largely on the filing of various trademarks not covered by the team owned components of an athletes personal brand (formal team jersey name).  

Because teams have no proprietary interest or ownership of nicknames for athletes, a move to shift commercial activities for sports merchandising has athletes squarely in charge of these new profit generating promotion and sales activities. 

• Johnny Manziel (JOHNNY FOOTBALL) Files His 10th Trademark Application with the USPTO for the Trademark JOHNNY CLEVELAND
• JOHNNY FOOTBALL Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Suspension Letter Issued on December 31, 2013
• JMAN2 Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Notice of Allowance Issued on June 24, 2014
• JMAN Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application

• Status:  Notice of Allowance Issued on June 24, 2014
• JIIM Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Notice of Allowance issued on July 1, 2014
• MANZIEL Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  March 25, 2014 - Office Action Issued For:
• Surname Refusal
• False Connection with a Living Individual
• Because Applicant is a Corporation, It Cannot Claim To Be An Individual in the Manner Necessary to Make a Valid Claim to the Manziel Surname
  
• JFF Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Notice of Allowance issued on July 1, 2014
• THE HOUSE THAT JOHNNY BUILT Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Suspension Letter Issued on March 19, 2014 RE: Prior Pending Trademark Application That is a Potential 2(d) Conflict with Applicant's Mark 
• Prior Pending Application THE HOUSE THAT JOHNNY BUILT (Applicant: Fitch Estate Sales)  
• U.S. Trademark Application Ser. No. 86/153461
• Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application

• Status:  Notice of Allowance Issued on July 1, 2014
• Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application
• Status:  Office Action issued on March 25, 2014
• Surname Refusal
• False Connection with a Living Individual
• Because Applicant is a Corporation, It Cannot Claim To Be An Individual in the Manner Necessary to Make a Valid Claim to the Manziel Surname
•  JOHNNY CLEVELAND Class 025 (Apparel) Trademark Application

Sports and Branding: Trademarks Become Part of the Play Book

As recent sports news coverage has demonstrated, most notably an article by ESPN on the subject of athletes and trademarks, athletes have learned the rules of branding and are ready to play the game.

With the speed that Jeremy Lin captured the public's imagination with his uncommon rags to riches story where the subject had to overcome the limitations of being a Harvard graduate, LINSANITY became a national phenomenon almost overnight.

As his popularity skyrocketed and his brand went from non-existent to one of the most viable in the NBA, savvy members of the viewing public began to file applications for the LINSANITY mark in connection with goods and services ranging from apparel to business management.

After threats of legal proceedings caused most third parties to settle and get out of the lane, Jeremy Lin has been recognized in various news reports as the exclusive owner of the LINSAINTY trademark.

Mere months later, Anthony Davis, the No. 1 pick of the 2012 NBA draft and the new face of the New Orleans Hornets, sought to preempt any such cherry picking of his trademark rights by the general public and filed for several brow raising trademarks.  Realizing the potential fodder his unique unibrow look may provide for fans and reporters alike, he filed for the following trademarks:  BROW DOWN, FEAR THE BROW, and RAISE THE BROW.

Now that athletes have realized the value of their personal brands, expect such preemptive filings and agressive legal action to become more commonplace, putting a trademark lawyer right there with a sports agent and personal manager as essential components of an athletes entourage.