Is it sports, entertainment, or advertising? And who's paying who for what?

[ianrandalstrock]

If, every time the newscaster mentions tomorrow's New York City Marathon, he calls it "The ING New York City Marathon", has he stopped reporting the news for instead broadcasting an advertisement? I find it a little annoying. Then again, I also don't like calling New Shea Stadium "City Field

Comments

[ken_schneyer]

I don't really think the NFL has any legitimate beef, from a trademark standpoint, if anybody uses the term Super Bowl to refer accurately to the event itself. Comes under the "fair use" doctrine.

But it is astonishing how much overreaching people engage in when they've got money and influence. I predict that Disney, sometime during the next 36 months, will threaten to sue at least one person for doing a stage adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which has been in the public domain for over a century.

[ianrandalstrock]

Well, there is a difference between a legitimate trademark defense and using an overwhelmingly large bank account to bludgeon others in court. But the fear of that bludgeoning seems to be putting us in these situations more and more.