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North Texas upset over TV ad that calls Michigan State 'Mean Green'


Harry

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A television ad for this Saturday's Michigan-Michigan State showdown refers to the Spartans as "Mean Green." 

An athletic director in Texas isn't happy about that. 

Wren Baker, the athletic director at North Texas, tweeted on Tuesday night that he's sending Michigan State and ESPN a cease and desist letter over what he calls the unauthorized usage of a trademarked nickname. 

North Texas says it has been using the moniker for its athletic teams since the 1960's, when its defensive line featured future NFL Hall of Famer Joe Greene. 

Baker told USA Today on Tuesday night that the school's attorneys planned on sending letters to Michigan State and ESPN on Wednesday morning. 

He also referenced a basketball game last year, when Michigan State wore lime green uniforms that were referred to as "Mean Green Hyper Elite."

According to a Michigan State spokesperson, Spartans athletic director Mark Hollis reached out to Baker on Wednesday morning "expressing MSU's and the athletic department's awareness of the importance of the trademark, and assuring him that we would not intentionally intrude upon its connection to North Texas."

read more:  http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2017/10/north_texas_upset_over_tv_ad_t.html

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Michigan State knew what they were doing.  So did ESPN.  Everybody in the sports business knows everybody else's nickname. 

But nobody thought that little school in Texas would kick about it. 

 

A similar situation occurred last season when the Seattle Seahawks referred to their fans as "the 12th man."  A&M stood up immediately and either stopped it or made Seattle pay for the infringement.

 

But this is why it's so important that we identify as North Texas and not UNT.  And also that North Texas wear green.  When we show up in black or grey, it's hard to demonstrate why we should call ourselves Mean Green.

 

And by the way, trademarked or not, if we don't defend our intellectual property, we are giving others "tacit permission" to infringe on our trademark.

 

Thanks Wren

 

GO MEAN GREEN

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The specific use of the the Mean Green name in conjunction with an athletic team is the issue. I think the cleaner or even this or my site are a different area because no one would confuse those with an athletic team. Seeing the michigan state football team or basketball team out while ESPN calls them 'mean green' is very confusing when BEIN Sport says 'Mean Green vs La Tech'

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Funny this reminds me of the time when NT played at UT-Austin and I was walking around Rainey street. I saw a bunch of green shirts and was disappointed to see they were Sparty fans gathering to watch them play someone. Meh.

 

GMG

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1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

Where does the industrial clean "Mean Green" fit into this?  They started using the name many years ago and we couldn't/didn't do a thing about it.  At least the AD at the time didn't do a thing about it.  Are we sure we have the rights to the "Mean Green" name???

Sounds like a good sponsor/partner to me!
"Mean Green Industrial Cleaning Products.  The official cleaning products for Mean Green opponents' skidmarks."

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1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Sounds like a good sponsor/partner to me!
"Mean Green Industrial Cleaning Products.  The official cleaning products for Mean Green opponents' skidmarks."

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4809%3Al2ra3a.2.51

 

Trademarks are given in specific use cases. NT trademarked 'Mean Green' in (from what i've seen so far) athletic teams, blankets/throws, buttons, etc.

 

Mean Green Carpet Clean and the others have a TM on their name/use combination.

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I know this is a Michigan-based news source, but one little thing ticked me...

"North Texas says it's been using the Mean Green moniker since the 1960's".

We ARE the Mean Green. This comes off as if our nickname was in question and the writer had to contact an administrator to get the 411 on what our nickname is.

Edited by Matt from A700
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3 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

I know this is a Michigan-based news source, but one little thing ticked me...

"North Texas says it's been using the Mean Green moniker since the 1960's".

We ARE the Mean Green. This comes off as if our mascot was in question and the writer had to contact an administrator to get the 411 on what our mascot is.

For you old-timers,
When did we officially stop going by "Eagles" and start going by "Mean Green"?   I thought I remember being referred to as the Eagles during my time at UNT, but when I google back that far, all I see/hear are "Mean Green" references.

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27 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Man, this is a gold mine! 

Somebody needs to go after these guys.

And these guys (see their business phone number) 

And maybe even this guy

But seriously, I'm seeing this thing all over the internet right now and I like it! 

All Pro Foundation is owned by alumni.

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41 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

For you old-timers,
When did we officially stop going by "Eagles" and start going by "Mean Green"?   I thought I remember being referred to as the Eagles during my time at UNT, but when I google back that far, all I see/hear are "Mean Green" references.

I think we officially changed the nickname in the early 2000's.  I still maintain we should have remained the Eagles as of the official nickname and have a secondary nickname as the Mean Green.  Still a head scratcher to me on why RV and the SGA during that time let this happen.

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3 minutes ago, Green Mean said:

I think we officially changed the nickname in the early 2000's.  I still maintain we should have remained the Eagles as of the official nickname and have a secondary nickname as the Mean Green.  Still a head scratcher to me on why RV and the SGA during that time let this happen.

Mascot = Eagles

Nickname = Mean Green

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