Intellectual Property, Sports

Cleveland Indians Will Take The Time It Needs To Clear Trademarks For New Name

The club will still be the Indians in 2021.

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The Cleveland Indians franchise officially announced that it will be changing its name after operating as the Indians for over a century. Team owner Paul Dolan has indicated that it will be a slow transition and that the club will still be the Indians in 2021.

“It’s a difficult and complex process to identify a new name and do all the things you do around activating that name,” Dolan said. “We are going to work at as quick a pace as we can while doing it right. But we’re not going to do something just for the sake of doing it. We’re going to take the time we need to do it right.”

Part of doing it right is to make sure that any desired names are cleared with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The last thing ownership wants to do is evolve from an unacceptable name to a new name that infringes on another’s trademark registration.

Meanwhile, the team should expect that crafty individuals will spend a few hundred dollars per application and begin the process of seeking to register trademarks associated with possible new team names. These applications are often filed by individuals without legal representation, including numerous errors in the filings. However, they can still serve as a frustration.

For instance, on July 7, 2020, a man named Arlen Love from Vancouver, Washington, filed to register the trademark, Cleveland Spiders, for use with sports jerseys but provided no filing basis of actual use or intent to use. The mark, which seems to be a fan favorite, remains pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It typically takes five days for an application to be processed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, thus, there may be more Cleveland Spider applications on the database in the near future.

On August 19, 2020, a man named Matthew Silver from Redondo Beach, California applied, on an intent-to-use basis, to register the trademark Cleveland Rockers. That application is currently stalled based on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examining attorney assigned to the file finding a likelihood of confusion with a design mark registration for ROCKERS, owned by a United Kingdom corporation, Ace Cafe London.

Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland Foresters, Cleveland Warriors, Cleveland Natives, Cleveland Engines, Cleveland Baseball Team, Cleveland Rooks, Cleveland Heroes, Cleveland Baseball Club, and Cleveland Squires have also all been applied for in the past six months by individuals and companies looking to get lucky by landing on a name that the baseball team truly covets.

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Another suggested name change is to the Cleveland Naps. It was once the name of the team and brings back memories of one of Cleveland’s best players — Nap Lajoie. Interestingly, this is a trademark registration currently owned by the Cleveland Indians Baseball Company, LLC, which is the parent organization of the club. The company has possessed the registration, for the purpose of selling clothing, since April 13, 2020.

Cleveland Indians Baseball Company, LLC owns other registrations to the trademarks Cleveland Blues and Cleveland Bronchos for the same goods. The company currently possesses no pending applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

There will certainly be new applications filed and processed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the coming days. Meanwhile, the team will have an important decision to make on its new name, which will not be announced for some time. However, we could see the team itself file new applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the near future unless it wishes to go with the Naps, Blues, or Bronchos.

Darren Heitner is the founder of Heitner Legal. He is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, published by the American Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. You can reach him by email at heitner@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @DarrenHeitner.

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