Court Rules Titlecraft Trophy Too Close to Lombardi
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011While our attention was elsewhere last year, apparently Titlecraft was in the courtroom fighting NFL action against it’s primary product — and losing.
Titlecraft, which launched in 2008 to build custom fantasy football trophies, said that it received a letter in August 2009 from the NFL “alleging, among other things, trademark infringement, false designation of origin and false description and trademark dilution.” Basically, the NFL accused Titlecraft of copying its primary design from the Lombardi Trophy and thus infringing on the trademark the league holds to that design.
Facing threat of litigation by the league, Titlecraft filed suit against the NFL in March 2010 seeking declaratory judgment that the league had no base for its claims and that Titlecraft would not be liable for any damages. The NFL countered and moved for partial summary judgment against Titlecraft. Unfortunately for the trophy company, even filing in the historically fantasy-friendly U.S. District Court in Minnesota didn’t help.
As Michael A. Stein of FantasyJudgment.com deftly explains in his blog post on the case (which alerted us to its presence), the court easily ruled that the design was too similar, as were the purposes for which the trophies existed (football-based championships).
“No ordinary observer could conclude that Titlecraft’s trophies have anything but the same concept and feel as the Lombardi Trophy,” the decision read.
Visitors to the Fantasy Judgment write-up can see the comparative pictures of the two trophies in question and judge for themselves. Visitors to the Titlecraft site will see an altered design for the signature trophy (also at left here).
It’s not yet clear what sort of penalty Titlecraft might be responsible for paying, but the case can serve as a reminder for fantasy companies to be careful in making sure that your product is truly unique, to the point that you can prove its uniqueness.
As we 
