About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

86 Tul. L. Rev. 901 (2011-2012)

handle is hein.journals/tulr86 and id is 909 raw text is: From Dallas Cap to American Needle and Beyond: Antitrust Law's Limited Capacity To Stitch Consumer Harm from Professional Sports Club Trademark Monopolies Matthew J. Mitten* A nearly fifly-year contemporaneous trend of increasig legal protecdon for sports team tradematks, collective exclusive licensmg ofprofessional soos team trademarks, and antitrust litgation regardng its valdity culminated in the United States Supreme Courth 2010 decision American Needle, Inc. v NFL, which rejected the NFAT single-entity defense. Collective exclusive trademark licenshig by professional sports leagues generally does not have sigwilcant incremental anticompetitive effects beyond the consumer harm already caused by each mdividual clubts lawful trademark monopoly which Iikely am outweighed by pcompetitve benefits h many instances. However, in order for antitrust law to minimize the consumer harm caused by the extension of trademark lawpotection beyond its traditional boundaries to create professional sports club trademark monopolies, the collective granting of exclusive product category licenses should be ivaldated under the quick-lookrule ofreason becamuse this rstrahit has clear anticompetitive effects that am not necessary to achieve legitimate procompetitive justifications and/or which maybe achieved by a substantiallylessrestrictive alternative. I. INTRODUCTION......................................902 II. THE EVOLUTION OF SPORTS TEAM TRADEMARK MONOPOLIES......................................904 III. APPLICATION OF ANTITRUST LAW TO COLLECTIVE TRADEMARK LICENSING BY A PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUE ...........................................916 A. Collective Exclusive Tmdemark Licemig......................920 B. Collective Exclusive Product Categories ................927 IV CONCLUSION .............................. .............932 * @ 2012 Matthew J. Mitten. Professor of Law and Director, National Sports Law Institute and LL.M. in Sports Law for Foreign Lawyers Program, Marquette University Law School. I want to thank Irene Calboli and Marc Edelman for their comments on an earlier draft of this Essay and Timothy Bucher, Marquette University Law School, Class of 2012, for his excellent research assistance. 901

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most