Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents in Sports

       In 1977, at age thirty-eight, former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton found himself pitching out of the bullpen for the Class-A Portland (Oregon) Mavericks. Bouton was thirteen years removed from his heyday with the New York Yankees and seven years past his last major-league appearance. Pitching in Portland, Bouton hoped, would be a small step in his climb back to the big leagues. The Portland Mavericks, however, were anything but big league. They traveled to games in an old red seatless school bus. During trips, the players slept on mattresses spread over the floor of the bus. Bouton found that his young teammates persisted in chewing tobacco, even though it made them sick. "Why do you do that?" Bouton would ask, as his teammates dribbled tobacco juice on their uniforms. The answer, Bouton knew, was simple--big leaguers chewed tobacco. Bouton spent countless hours in the Mavericks' bullpen with the team's pitching coach, Rob Nelson. One day, Nelson commented that young ballplayers needed a product that looked like chewing tobacco but tasted better. Nelson's innocent remark proved to be the inspiration for "Big League Chew"--thin strips of chewing gum that came in a pouch. Bouton and Nelson set to work. While Nelson cooked up samples of the product in his kitchen, Bouton tackled legal matters. His first step was to protect the name "Big League Chew" by applying for a trademark.

       A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or design that identifies the brand or source of goods. Only terms that are distinctive can be trademarked. For this reason, a generic term can never be trademarked. Bouton could not have obtained a trademark for the terms "bubble gum" or "chewing gum," since they are generic terms. However, "Big League Chew" was distinctive and easily satisfied the requirements for a trademark.