Grand Jury investigating Roger Clemens subpoenas Jose Canseco; PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem accused of favoritism;
Jose Canseco subpoenaed
On April 8 Jose Canseco will appear before a federal grand jury in Washington. The grand jury is deciding whether or not to indict Roger Clemens for lying under oath to Congress. Clemens' testimony in 2008, in which he denied using HGH or steroids, is under scrutiny. Canseco has previously stated in an affidavit that he has no knowledge of Clemens ever using PEDs.
PGA Commissioner showing favoritism?
Commissioner of the PGA Tour Tim Finchem is under fire from two tour golfers who believe Finchem is showing favoritism to golfer Steve Elkington. A memo written by the commissioner on November 23, 2009 was obtained by the Associated Press. The memo requests tournaments to grant Elkington a sponsor's exemption. Golfers David Duval and Tim Herron claim that the commissioner is showing favoritism and stepping outside of his role as commissioner.
The March Madness Trademark
The NCAA basketball tournament will have another four days of "March Madness" starting tonight and continuing through Sunday. The term "March Madness" did not originate with the NCAA tournament, and is actually a trademark held jointly by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and the NCAA.
"March Madness" was used to describe the Illinois High School Basketball Association tournament in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. The term continued to be used for the next 40 or so years. By 1977 the IHSA came out with a book titled MARCH MADNESS covering the history of the tournament.
Despite the popularity of the NCAA tournament, the NCAA never claimed a right to use the term until the 1990’s. It is said that Brent Musburger, working for CBS in the early 1980’s, began using the term "March Madness" during an NCAA basketball telecast. Musberger had been a local newspaper's sports reporter and later a tv sports anchor in Chicago, and had more than likely heard the term used for years in association with the Illinois High School Basketball tournament.
Intersport was a sports television production company that actually had the trademark rights to the term "March Madness". The IHSA then bought the rights to "March Madness" from Intersport. GTE Vantage, Inc. was an NCAA licensee using the term in a computer game. IHSA sued GTE Vantage. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found in Illinois High School Ass'n v. GTE Vantage Inc. (1996) that there existed a "dual-use trademark" and therefor granted each party trademark rights for their own use.
After this ruling, the NCAA and the IHSA jointly created the March Madness Athletic Association to license the term and vigilantly pursue trademark infringement.An entity named Netfire, Inc. was disseminating information about the NCAA tournament on its website marchmadness.com In March Madness Athletic Association v. Netfire, Inc. (2003) The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that "March Madness" was not a generic term. Their order was for Netfire to relinquish the domain name.
Categories: Jose Canseco; Tim Finchem; March Madness as a trademark
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