December 31, 2009

Michael Jordan Sues Grocery Stores for Trademark Infringement… After They Congratulate Him!

by Mark Malek

You may have already heard about the latest trademark infringement case, where Michael Jordan (yes, that Michael Jordan) has sued two grocery store chains, Jewel-Osco and Dominick’s for trademark infringement, after the stores ran full page ads in a Sports Illustrated issue dedicated to the accomplishments of Jordan.  This comes on the heels of Jordan’s ridiculous Hall of Fame induction speech, in which he just ranted about how great he is.  Michael – can you get more arrogant?  Who is advising you?  Please fire them and get someone else – I think you can afford it!

“Hmmm… I wonder if my attorney has read New Kids on the Block v. News America or ETW v. Jireh“

For those of you who like your information straight from the source and unfiltered, you can find Mr. Jordan’s complaints here and here.

At the end of the day, Jordan probably has a case.  He owns a trademark on his name, and has probably gone to great lengths to protect his trademarks.  Clearly, the Jordan brand is quite valuable.  In my humble opinion, however, I do not think that every possible trademark infringement case needs to be prosecuted.  There is such a thing as bad publicity.

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Tags: bully, dominick's, jewel-osco, michael jordan, rights of publicity, tm bully	Comments (3)
Filed under: trademark
markmalek @ 11:24 am
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3 Comments »

1. 

   There’s a great quote in New Kids:

   With many well-known trademarks, such as Jell-O, Scotch tape and Kleenex, there are equally informative non-trademark words describing the products (gelatin, cellophane tape and facial tissue).  But sometimes there is no descriptive substitute, and a problem closely related to genericity and descriptiveness is presented when many goods and services are effectively identifiable only by their trademarks.  For example, one might refer to “the two-time world champions” or “the professional basketball team from Chicago,” but it’s far simpler (and more likely to be understood) to refer to the Chicago Bulls.  In such cases, use of the trademark does not imply sponsorship or endorsement of the product because the mark is used only to describe the thing, rather than to identify its source.

   Comment by jfischer1975 — December 31, 2009 @ 11:45 am

2. [...] The only downside that I see to so educating the next crop of attorneys is that a huge source of entertainment will be snuffed out.  What will we read about for fun when Micheal Jordan’s attorney convinces him not to sue the people who congratulate him? [...]

   Pingback by Streisand 101 « The Legal Satyricon — January 5, 2010 @ 10:27 pm

3. [...] achievements. Jordan proceeded to sue them for trademark infringement. [Chicago Breaking Sports, Tactical IP via Legal [...]

   Pingback by Annals of sports trademarks — January 6, 2010 @ 7:56 am

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