New Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has brought a gift to those in the trademark world that enjoy terrible word-play. He very recently filed federal trademark applications with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in an attempt to claim a monopoly on two terms — TOMPA BAY and TAMPA BRADY, both in connection with the sale of merchandise.
Doesn’t TOMPA BAY sound like how someone from the Australian outback would pronounce the west coast Florida city? TAMPA BRADY may be a smidge better, but is still rather uncomfortable to the ear.
Perhaps this is Tom’s way of putting an exclamation point on his leaving the New England Patriots!
Brady’s company, TEB Capital Management Inc., filed applications for these terms on April 6. These filings indicate that the company intends to produce and sell clothing, headwear and footwear with these marks.
In March, Brady’s company applied to trademark the term TB x TB also in connection with clothing, so his team is apparently working on as many clever trademarks as possible.
Typically, it takes about a year for a trademark application to go through. During the application process, Brady would have to demonstrate that he is selling the identified merchandise. However, the application does arguably prevent another party from attempting to trademark the term.
As this author reported last year, Brady previously applied to trademark the term TOM TERRIFIC in connection with clothing and trading cards. We know how that went. The public backlash was overwhelming as sports fans of the hall of fame pitcher Tom Seaver, the one and only TOM TERRIFIC, were outraged. Not surprisingly, Brady’s TOM TERRIFIC trademark application was abandoned.
Tom Brady may be a great quarterback, perhaps the best ever, but to this author he has got a lot to learn about trademark branding!