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USA : Bygone Sports gets approval for Washington National' trademark
February 15, 2006 |  |
Marketer of sportswear Bygone Sports LLC announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") has granted it approval for federal trademark registration for the name 'WASHINGTON NATIONALS.'
Bygone Sports applied for the federal trademark registration in September 2002 to market a line of nostalgic sportswear and apparel.
The PTO had earlier rejected a Protest filed in August 2005 by Major League Baseball Properties seeking to block the registration in which MLBP claimed that Major League Baseball, and not Bygone, owned the trademark.
The PTO's approval of Bygone's WASHINGTON NATIONALS trademark comes in the midst of a lawsuit filed in June 2005 in federal court in Manhattan by MLBP and Baseball Expos, LP (the owner of the major league baseball team "The Washington Nationals" which began playing in Washington DC, last Spring -- following Baseball's announcement in November 2004 of the team's new name).
In the lawsuit, MLBP and Baseball Expos sought to challenge Bygone's right to the name 'WASHINGTON NATIONALS' after their negotiations with Bygone to purchase Bygone's trademark rights failed.
Bygone intends to pursue its trademark infringement claims against MLBP and Baseball Expos which it had initially filed in July 2005 (see Bygone Sports Press Release of July 20, 2005, attached).
In August 2005, in an effort to block Bygone's infringement claims, MLBP filed a Protest with the PTO.
The PTO rejected MLBP's Protest and has now approved the federal trademark registration for Bygone.
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