moderndukes t1_izgebcl wrote on December 8, 2022 at 10:29 PM

IANAL but I watch wrestling and people trademark a lot of things there. For example, Chris Jericho this year trademarked “The Ocho.”

Now you may be thinking, “Wait, surely ESPN has a trademark on that, right?”

Here’s the thing: Jericho trademarked it within the context of pro wrestling. Look at the trademark documents for “Charm City” and you’ll see similar qualifiers about it being in relation to football.

Essentially, they were looking to cease people from making purple “Charm City football” shirts which make profits while trying to circumvent the Ravens name. This wouldn’t give them the right to send a cease-and-desist to say Charm City Cakes or Charm City Meadworks. However, note that they got rejected because it was just “geographically descriptive” - essentially, the Patent Office said you can’t trademark a place’s name or existing nickname.

TalkShowHost99 t1_izizxre wrote on December 9, 2022 at 1:42 PM

This.

“In a statement to The Banner, the Ravens said that "the intent of this trademark filing is not to prevent anyone from the general use of 'Charm City.' We understand that 'Charm City' is a commonly utilized moniker by many entities, and we fully respect that."

"Our trademark filing is specific to anything in connection with, or relating to, Baltimore Ravens professional football. This includes team marketing campaigns — such as 'Charm City Football,' which is used to represent the history of football in Baltimore — slogans, merchandise and promotional items," the team added.”

The team is only attempting to protect Charm City when it’s used in connection to Baltimore Ravens Football. This is a preventative measure because allegedly some person in the past trademarked a slogan that the team was using before they could and then tried to force the team to buy it from them.