According to a recent Associated Press report, the Louisiana Attorney General had to step in and stand up for the tee shirt and souvenir vendors after the NFL had issued cease and desist orders against their selling of merchandise with the ‘Who Dat' slogan printed on said merchandise.

It is somewhat ironic, since the NFL had never crossed this line prior to the Saints winning their division championship and heading off to the Super Bowl. The ‘Who Dat' phrase is short for the Cajun expression, ‘Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints'. Of course, the NFL typically becomes rabid when it comes to any sort of trademark infringement.

In this instance, the public outpouring of sentiment and condemnation directed against the NFL for issuing these cease and desist orders to the small businessmen and women in New Orleans convinced them to take the high road in this case. Given all the problems the city has endured since Hurricane Katrina, targeting free enterprise in this city would indeed have brought the NFL a firestorm of bad PR.

The league finally capitulated and stated that they would exclude all uses of the ‘Who Dat' phrase as well as merchandise with fleur-de-lis logos. They said they would continue to go after any companies selling any merchandise that included registered Saints trademarks. It should also be mentioned that two brothers and longtime Saints fans claimed ownership of the ‘Who Dat' phrase, which has been around before the Saints inception in '66. 

This is one of the rare cases in which the little guys came out on the winning side in a trademark dispute. In most cases, small businesses that take on big corporations in trademark or patent disputes have more to lose than to gain. Even when you believe you you are in the right and have a strong case against a major corporation, your chances of winning are not very good at all.

I have some recent experience in dealing with trademark dispute and advice for anyone who finds themselves in a similar position. My web site, Boomer Opinion, was originally called Boomer Insxxxx.  After launching my site and having an online presence for almost a year, I received a cease and desist order claiming our URL was violating another company's trademark.

After reviewing the trademark in question, I believed that since I was in a different business sector and since our web site's name was not exactly the same from the litigants, I didn't believe that I was actually violating their trademark. However, after researching company that was bringing the suit against us and realizing they were a global conglomerate with very deep pockets, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor in this particular case. We couldn't afford to legally pursue this case, so we agreed to change our name.

During our initial research, the URL I really wanted was www.boomeropinion.com, but that URL was unavailable at the time. After all, the site was going to be an opinion portal and our target demographic was Baby Boomers. What would be a better name for our site? Well, once the trademark issue came up, we started our name search all over and unbelievably the name we wanted initially was now available. In my case, I was very lucky and the transition was easy.

Bottomline: Do your research and determine if you have the time and resources to take on the company who thinks you are violating their trademark or patent. Sometimes it makes more sense to come up with a different name, technology or approach to your market. And in some cases, simply having first mover status in your market is enough to win the majority share of your target market. Put your focus on making a name for your company and providing the very best products and customer services.

Bruce Meyers was a pioneer in designing and building fiberglass bodied dune buggies. He brought the Meyers Manx Dune Buggy to market in the early sixties. It was the first fiberglass bodied dune buggy utilizing a VW chassis. They were sold as kits and as ready to drive street legal vehicles. Unfortunately, 300 companies copied Meyers' designs and competed unfairly against him.

Meyers' company ultimately went bankrupt trying to sue his primary competitors for patent infringement. Being first to market with a superior product doesn't guarantee success. In this case, Meyers would probably have been better off building his brand and reputation for quality and innovation than suing the copycats.

The little guys do win occasionally, but the smartest, most innovative companies will dominate their markets and prevail regardless of the obstacles they encounter on the way to achieving their goals. Make sure you know who and what you are up against if you intend on suing those who copy your designs and those who infringe on your trademark.

If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined our community, www.boomeropinion.com, please consider it. It is free and only takes a couple of minutes to sign up. You can share your viewpoint and voice your opinion on the critical issues facing America. And if we recruit enough of you, we can positively impact business and political policies around the country.