Canadian High School, NFL Collide Over Ram Moniker

A Canadian public school board and the National Football League are butting heads over the use of the name “Rams.”

Lawyers for the Calgary Board of Education have filed a statement of opposition with the country’s Registrar of Trademarks with regard to the NFL’s attempts to gain exclusive North American rights to the Rams title.

Central Memorial High School--one of Calgary’s oldest schools--has used the name on team jerseys, school band uniforms, T-shirts and mugs since 1908.

John Uren, a Vancouver trademark lawyer and Central alumnus, tipped the school that the NFL was seeking exclusive use of the name in North America when he spotted an item in a trademark journal. A former Central Rams halfback, Uren was irritated that the NFL would try to monopolize the use of the name.

The school board contacted both the Rams and the NFL, but attempts to negotiate co-use of the name have been unsuccessful.

“They were taking the position that they weren’t prepared to give us an offer of settlement, and we were instructed (by the board) to file a statement of opposition,” said Martha O’Connor, one of the lawyers acting on the board’s behalf.

At stake for the school are potentially expensive royalty payments and tarnishing of a school title that carries decades of tradition, says Gordon Branson, the board’s director of corporate and legal affairs.

O’Connor said the NFL insists it has used or made known the trademark in Canada, and now wants protection under the country’s Trademark Act.

An entity makes such a claim through the Registrar of Trademarks, and it is then published in a “trademark journal.” If no opposition to the claim comes forward within a certain period of time, then the entity gains exclusive use of the trademark.

O’Connor says the board will counter that the trademark is not distinctive and that the NFL should have known there had been earlier use of the name. The board has collected, and continues to seek, Central Memorial paraphernalia from past and present as evidence when the case is heard by the registrar, O’Connor said.

If the sides can’t come to an agreement, the case will wind up before the Registrar of Trademarks, which will render a decision after considering both positions.

Ram team officials said they were unaware of legal squabble. New York-based NFL Properties Inc. is the licensing branch for the NFL and handles all trademark matters on behalf of teams.

Maria Liuzzo, manager of the company’s trademark protection program, said there’s generally an “open policy” regarding schools using team names. “If there’s a Little League team out there or a school team that wants to call themselves the Atlanta Falcons . . . then we have no problems with that,” Liuzzo said Wednesday by telephone from New York.

The NFL has even allowed U.S. schools to use an official team logo without royalty payment, she said, as long as the logo and the name aren’t being used for commercial gain. Exemptions are routinely granted to schools wanting to sell limited numbers of souvenirs, she added.

“But if someone tries to fool the public into believing that they are associated with the Los Angeles Rams . . . then that is a problem to us.”

But Liuzzo said she is not “privy” to what’s going on in Canada and did not know of the Calgary case or why it would differ from the way U.S. schools were treated. Gary Daniel, a Toronto lawyer acting for NFL Properties in Canada, said he had been advised by his client to defend the trademark in the case. Daniel would not say who told him to do so.

Daniel confirmed that a statement of opposition had been filed by the school board but declined to comment further without first consulting NFL Properties.

Liuzzo said the NFL makes a great effort to protect trademarks.

“We have an obligation to protect our own licensees who pay us a royalty to use the names on various different kinds of merchandise. We have an obligation to protect the fans and we have an obligation to protect football,” she said.

O’Connor doesn’t expect a quick decision on the matter.

“The wheels of justice,” she said, “move very slowly.”