NFL harpoons Pendleton man’s trademark application

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A Pendleton man who filed applications last year to register “Harbowl” and “Harbaugh Bowl” as U.S. trademarks said he abandoned his applications in response to pressure from the National Football League, ESPN reported.

Roy Fox filed his applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in February 2012, in anticipation that the brothers Jim and John Harbaugh, who, respectively, coach the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, might go head to head at this year’s Super Bowl game, according to ESPN.

He said he was contacted by the league even before the season started, and was told that the NFL feared the marks could be confused with its own, and that he had no affiliation with the Harbaugh brothers, whose teams are set to compete in the Feb. 3 Super Bowl, ESPN reported.

The applications are now abandoned, and Fox said that the league didn’t respond to his requests to compensate him for the costs of filing the applications and for season tickets to the Indianapolis Colts games and an autographed photo of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to ESPN.
 

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