BILLS MAFIA TRADEMARK UPDATE
January 24, 2022
As the Bills Mafia heads home in disappointment from Kansas City, Buffalo Bills LLC itself is in a position to complete the U.S. Trademark application process for the "Bills Mafia" trademark in standard characters (SN 90248260) and in a design format (SN 90248264).
With a minor modification to the description of medical mask products in International Class 10, both marks have now been "allowed" by the USPTO for a wide variety of clothing ranging from aprons and baseball caps to wool hats and wrist bands.
The publication period during which any third party could have opposed one or both applications passed uneventfully. With the filing of a Statement of Use, together with specimens of the marks in use with the goods claimed, the Bills will be entitled to received United States trademark registrations. This will allow the Bills to use the international trademark symbol ® on goods that carry the marks.
This is a valuable piece of intellectual property which will open the federal courts to legal actions brought by the Bills to prevent others from infringing their marks by distributing masks or clothing items with the same, or substantially similar branding.
Note, that if the Bills fail to take steps to protect their Bills Mafia trademarks from infringement by third parties, they run the risk that this valuable protection will be lost. Hence, it appears that the final chapter on the Bills Mafia trademark registrations has not yet been written, even though the Bills 2021 season has come to an end.
You can find my previous blogs on the Bills Mafia Trademark case below:
Les Greenbaum is an experienced attorney who focuses his practice in the areas of trademark, copyright, entertainment, art and sports law, unfair competition and related litigation. He can be reached at Gross Shuman P.C. by calling 716-854-4300 ext. 230 or lgreenbaum@gross-shuman.com.
