Typical Aggies

[eagles_victory]

FORT WORTH -- The Seattle Seahawks are facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, but they have an off-the-field battle brewing with Texas A&M.


School officials are upset with the Seahawks' use of the "12th Man" theme to recognize their fan support. A&M has legal claims to the "12th Man" moniker, a school tradition that dates to the 1920s.


Texas A&M contends the 12th man lives at Kyle Field, not in Seattle.

The Seahawks have celebrated their fans as a "12th Man" since the 1980s, when they used to turn the now-demolished Kingdome into one of the NFL's loudest venues.


The team retired the No. 12 in 1984. Now, a No. 12 flag waves atop the city's signature Space Needle and the team has raised a "12th Man" banner at their new stadium, Qwest Field.


A&M's "12th Man" tradition started in 1922, when a student, E. King Gill, was called from the stands to suit up for the injury-depleted Aggies as they faced top-ranked Centre College. Gill never got in the game, but the Aggies won 22-14.


The tradition has evolved into a campus-wide commitment to support the football team. Students stand for entire games at Kyle Field and at times, they join arms and sway in unison, causing the stadium to literally shake.


A&M has twice registered trademarks for "The 12th Man" label -- in 1990 and 1996 -- that include entertainment services, "namely organizing and conducting intercollegiate sporting events," and products, such as caps, T-shirts, novelty buttons and jewelry.


Athletics director Bill Byrne said this week he's received e-mails from A&M supporters complaining about the Seahawks' "brazen use of the 12th Man theme at their home playoff games."


Byrne said A&M has contacted the Seahawks about the issue. He said he wrote the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills in the past about halting their 12th man themes once the university made them aware of the trademark registrations.


Byrne said Seattle, though, "has been slow-rolling us."


Lance Lopes, the Seahawks' vice president of corporate partnerships/legal affairs, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he would not comment on whether the team would meet A&M's request.


"I will say this," Lopes told the newspaper. "Our fans have been the folks that have run with the 12th man. It has not been the organization itself. We raise a flag with a 12 on it, it doesn't say 12th man or anything like that. We retired the jersey No. 12 many, many years ago and we've always sort of kept it under that context.


"But, in terms of this whole 12th man derivative, if you will, that's occurred in the mass media and the public here locally. It has not been generated by the organization, per se."


But Steve Moore, A&M's chief marketing officer, said the school has seen Seahawks-themed "12th Man" merchandise and has no way to know whether the franchise itself is producing it.


The team's pro shop is sold out of No. 12 replica game jerseys and No. 12 flags and a fan Web site -- SeaHawkers.org -- offers downloadable computer desktop wallpaper that reads: "At Home We are the 12th Man" and "On the Road We are the 12th Man."


"In the normal course of action, once someone becomes aware of it and they understand that you have a registered trademark, normally they cease," said Steve Moore, A&M's chief marketing officer. "In this case, they have chosen not to, but we are still hopeful that they will, quite frankly."


The university's last resort is to take the Seahawks to court, but Moore said A&M is not prepared to do that yet.


"What we hope is that the normal course of action will work, and that they'll choose to recognize our ownership of the trademark," he said.

[Gobbla2001]

If the Seahawks organization is involved in selling anything "12th man" etc... A&M has every right to tell them to stop, it comes with the territory when you trademark your originality...

Seahawk fans need to be original...

Coming from a UT fan...

[HighSchool Fan]

a&m should encourage it, maybe the 12th man will feel like a winner again

[pirate44]

i guess my idea of printing Sinton Pirate t-shirts with a hook-armed pirate and the words "Hook 'em" just wouldn't fly :(

[injuredinmelee]

the ags could have used about 22 men on the field at times this year.

[Gobbla2001]

Originally posted by pirate44
i guess my idea of printing Sinton Pirate t-shirts with a hook-armed pirate and the words "Hook 'em" just wouldn't fly :(

Yah, the Superman diamond S was removed from Schulenburg's helmets because they were forced to...

How about the USC fan who had shirts made that said "Three-Pete" (in reference to Pete Carroll), they couldn't do it because Pat Reily created the phrase "Three-Peat" and had it trademarked...

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
Yah, the Superman diamond S was removed from Schulenburg's helmets because they were forced to...

Sounds like Snyder will need new helmets too...

[SnyTigBaseB07]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
Sounds like Snyder will need new helmets too...

Haha ours isnt the regular superman S though

ours is called the rainbow S, the design is altered just a lil bit just incase people wanna get picky and tell us we cant use it.

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by SnyTigBaseB07
Haha ours isnt the regular superman S though

ours is called the rainbow S, the design is altered just a lil bit just incase people wanna get picky and tell us we cant use it.

rainbow...

do you mean like this???

http://n2rainbows.homestead.com/files/GaySmileyDayT.gif

[SnyTigBaseB07]

Hhahaha very funny, lol.

Its called the "rainbow S" i'm not exactly sure where that came from , i can assure you though that snyder athletes dont "like" rainbows....well...atleast not the baseball players...wouldnt know about anything else.




AHH!!!! Lol , i quoted you on that and the pic came up with some funny stuff around it.

Have a *** day...nice one :)

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
rainbow...

do you mean like this???

http://n2rainbows.homestead.com/files/GaySmileyDayT.gif

dang gif file with the black fonts...here is the actual link so you can see what I WANTED to show you...

The Snyder Rainbows (http://n2rainbows.homestead.com/files/GaySmileyDayT.gif)

[Adidas410s]

hey look...you can see the actual rainbow text when I quote it in my reply!!! :D

[BU97]

Brilliant A&M, they have been doing this for 21 years and they just now noticed!

The new flag. . . 11+1

[Gobbla2001]

I'm sorry, they didn't have to remove the S from their helmets, I meant to say they had to stop selling merchandise with the superman S on it...

my bad

[SnyTigBaseB07]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
I'm sorry, they didn't have to remove the S from their helmets, I meant to say they had to stop selling merchandise with the superman S on it...

my bad

haha if thats the case then we're screwed!!! like 75 percent of snyder stuff has the S somewhere, like all the hats and shirts...that'd suck though!

[Phil C]

Quick Sinton ISD - get the neverending S copywrited if it isn't too late!!

[Gobbla2001]

Originally posted by SnyTigBaseB07
haha if thats the case then we're screwed!!! like 75 percent of snyder stuff has the S somewhere, like all the hats and shirts...that'd suck though!

Yah, it was a big deal, made national headlines and all...

Forget exactly what happened, though... dunno if it stood or not...

[sinton66]

Originally posted by Phil C
Quick Sinton ISD - get the neverending S copywrited if it isn't too late!!

Has been copyrighted for years.

[mwynn05]

Originally posted by Phil C
Quick Sinton ISD - get the neverending S copywrited if it isn't too late!! I dono if Sinton ISD would have the money to do that themselves. It can get pretty costly pretty quick and with school funding in the state it is in is it worth it? Now if the boosters wanted to fund it that would be great

[sinton66]

Trust me, Sinton ISD copyrighted the neverending S years ago. Not sure how it was paid for, may have been by private donation. But, I'm positive it has been copyrighted.

[pirate44]

i might be off my rocker, but didnt Sinton use a superman s on the helmets in the early 90's (at least 1 season)???

[District303aPastPlayer]

two things... the Superman S was used...
and the Never Ending S isnt a sinton trademarked thing. its actually a book companies trademark... :)

[sinton66]

According to the school district, it is copyrighted.

[District303aPastPlayer]

its copyrighted by a book company too... hmm... wonder about this one...

[turbostud]

Originally posted by BU97
Brilliant A&M, they have been doing this for 21 years and they just now noticed!

The new flag. . . 11+1

You have to realize that this the first trip to the Superbowl for the Seahawks, no one cared before now. How many times have they actually been to the playoffs also, not to many.

[sinton66]

I think it's a similar design, but different.

[BU97]

Originally posted by turbostud
You have to realize that this the first trip to the Superbowl for the Seahawks, no one cared before now. How many times have they actually been to the playoffs also, not to many.

I agree but I have known about the Seahawks 11+1 man for a few years, and I am not a real big NFL fan, not exactly sure how/when I heard about it. What I am saying is that it is hard for me to believe that A&M is just now finding this out. I think that they want to do something now that the Seahawks are getting some pub. No one disputes that the idea of the 12th man began @ A&M, but they are not the only ones that want to make the fans seem as a vital part of the team.

[Phil C]

11 point OK lead. The Sooners came to play on their home court tonight.

[Phil C]

Still a 7 point OK lead with less than 4 minutes but OK is at the free throw line. UT had chances but bad passing and missed shots are killing them tonight. I don't think they can pull it out the way they are playing tonight. I hate for them to lose but OK is playing great tonight.

[pirate44]

Originally posted by District303aPastPlayer
two things... the Superman S was used...
and the Never Ending S isnt a sinton trademarked thing. its actually a book companies trademark... :)
i heard a long time ago it was copyrited:thinking:

[big daddy russ]

Originally posted by BU97
Brilliant A&M, they have been doing this for 21 years and they just now noticed!

The new flag. . . 11+1
I just noticed this year. When you're the Clippers of the NFL for 19 of those 21 years, nobody 2000 miles away cares about you.

[Gobbla2001]

They may have noticed a long time ago, though... According to reports, A&M has asked them many times... Now that the Seahawks are headed to the Super Bowl, their team and traditions are more visible to the national public, so the national public has taken notice, and those A&M fans have asked about it, and reporters have asked about it... All that A&M is doing here is answering questions, I don't see them all over the news going crazy about it or anything, they're handling it with class...

[AggieJohn]

Originally posted by big daddy russ
I just noticed this year. When you're the Clippers of the NFL for 19 of those 21 years, nobody 2000 miles away cares about you. haha...

[MHSvarsity2007]

Originally posted by SnyTigBaseB07
Haha ours isnt the regular superman S though

ours is called the rainbow S, the design is altered just a lil bit just incase people wanna get picky and tell us we cant use it.

isn't snyder's "S" inside the thing different than the superman one??

[Bulldog_12]

This is something A&M must do. You have to protect your trademarks or you will lose them. Im not gonna lie, I was worried about this because I figured it would end up being another thing that could be used as a jab to us Aggies. But it seems as though A&M is handling it very well. Seattle newspapers are the ones that sound like babies, and just for that I hope the Bus rolls on Sunday.

[Bandera YaYa]

I could understand if what we were talking about was up there with the cure for cancer or feeding all the hungry....but with how the world is, I just don't think it's that important..... so, let's get real here....that's all i'm saying....

[Gobbla2001]

The thing folks need to realize is that A&M isn't going on a complaining spree... Seattle's recent success on the national level has caused their "12th Man" practices to be noticed... A&M has already asked them to stop, which is their given right because they have the trademark, they were original... A thing that gets kids to go to A&M is the tradition (winning or losing aside, I'm a UT fan and I have to hand it to A&M), which in some ways revolves around that very same "12th man" concept, having a sports organization using the same slogan on a national level waters down that meaning...

Now, the media and Aggie-faithful have noticed these practices by the Seahawks fan, organization or whomever is using the "12th Man " 'trademark', and have asked A&M about it... All that A&M is doing right now is answer questions...

As I've said before, are we not to be rewarded for being original? Trademarking your ideas (TAMU's in this case) is protecting your originality... telling someone they cannot use your 'trademarked' orginality comes with the territory of owning those rights...

If that is to not be protected, I will soon open up a business selling used junk and call it "Dell Computers"...

[Gobbla2001]

Originally posted by Bandera YaYa
I could understand if what we were talking about was up there with the cure for cancer or feeding all the hungry....but with how the world is, I just don't think it's that important..... so, let's get real here....that's all i'm saying....

But none of us here lead an organization for curing cancer or feeding the hungry, so until then we'll talk about everything else in between like we always have haha

[CHS_CG]

i think ppl are makin a big deal that the aggies are stupid for doin this bc they have something against A&M you tell me if it was YOU that came up with the 12th man wouldnt you be a lil pissed off too?

[District303aPastPlayer]

i didnt know you could trademark cheers...

im going to trademark 2 bits...

(as taken from Around the Horn)

[eagles_victory]

Wilbon was tearing the Aggies up on PTI today it was great. :D

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by eagles_victory
Wilbon was tearing the Aggies up on PTI today it was great. :D

i didnt get to see it... Mike Wilbon is probably as funny if not funnier than woody paige... lol.. what did he say?

[KTJ]

Did you hear what Rome said about the Aggies?




(This time, he really said something.)


:D