Raiders Relocation Rumours Spark Trade Mark Scrimmage

The Oakland Raiders, the professional American NFL team and franchise based in Oakland California, are rumoured to be relocating themselves to 'Sin City', Las Vegas. For many sports fans that don't live in North America, the fact that a sports team can relocate itself to a completely new location can seem quite bizarre. In America, however, this practise can occur quite often and is usually down to financial instability, the wishes of the owner or lack of support and facilities at the club.

The rumours of the Raiders relocation however resulted in a number of individuals applying to trade mark "Las Vegas Raiders", most likely in order to gain financially from a potentially lucrative trade mark. It is estimated to have cost these people $275 to apply to register the mark "Las Vegas Raiders".

Earlier last week the Las Vegas Sun reported their interview with one of the applicants, Lane Blue, an air freight company owner. In the interview, Blue exclaimed the reasons behind why he has applied to register the mark.

"…You're either going to have to give me the $700 million or a billion, or you'll have to stay in Oakland and I'll give it back". This statement from Blue confirmed that he had two different intentions in applying to register the mark, those being that: if he was successfully granted the trade mark he would require a large sum of money to have it bought off him in the hypothetical situation that the Oakland Raiders do in fact move to Las Vegas or because Blue owns the name, he may be able to talk the Oakland Raiders into staying put, in Oakland. Blue's application has since been unsuccessful.

Some of the others who have applied to register the mark include a "Las Vegas clothing company owner, a Houston pain management doctor and a Boston gym owner".

Patrick Jennings, a sports trademark attorney stated "people think they're going to cash in and 99.9 percent of the time, they're wrong" he continued by explaining that "for a trademark lawyer, it doesn't take much effort to knock those (applications) out separate from the patent and trademark office.". Currently, three applications by the Raiders await in limbo whilst the US Trademark Office assesses some of the earlier applications.

This story highlights the importance of making sure applications have been made before any public announcements come out, otherwise you run the risk of money motivated individuals getting in there before you!