From: Rocky Willson Subject: Re: Anheuser Busch interested in Foosbal! Read & Reply Date: 09 Apr 1999 00:00:00 GMT (EDITED) Message-ID: <370DCD73.E3EF0E0@ix.netcom.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <7ejbmk$39b@news.Hawaii.Edu> To: Robert Kazuhiko Uyeyama Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Netcom X-NETCOM-Date: Fri Apr 09 2:53:50 AM PDT 1999 Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.sport.table-soccer At one time, the spelling "Foosball" was registered as a trademark. This is why you do not see it on any brand of table than the original Foosball Tables. During the 70's you would frequently see the alternate spellings Foozball, Fussball, etc used by other manufacturers. This was due to them avoiding the use of the licensed term "Foosball" Many would just use the term "Table Soccer" to avoid any misrepresentation. I heard that in the late 70's or early 80's Mike Dickenson of Pro Soccer fame purchased a license to use the name Foosball on his products. I know that the word Foosball with the circled "R" indicating a registered trademark appeared on the backs of the yellow and beige Pro Soccer men. I will agree that the use of the term Foosball is today commonplace and is used frequently by many commercal interests (myself included). It is my belief that those who had the legal license to this trade name no longer feel that protecting it is of value. If they tried at this point I would imagine that the courts might view them as not protecting their property (the trade name "Foosball") sufficiently to maintain control of the word. But what the fellow at AB probably wanted to find out is if there was someone who might step up and challenge the use of the word in a major advertising campaign. This is possible and such a challenge would be within the tradename holders rights. Such a challenge could bring costly injunctions for a potential advertiser, especially one the size of AB. The name was registered, and until it is found in court to no longer be valid, it still is registered. ...........................................................Rocky Willson > ************************************************************************ > > Subject: Foosball > Sent: 4/8/19 4:03 PM > Received: 4/8/99 1:06 PM > From: Murphy, Mike (Brand Mgmt), Mike.Murphy@anheuser-busch.com > To: uyeyama@hawaii.edu > > I am looking for information on Foosball. In particular, who is the major > organizer in the United States? Is there an official sponsor? Is > foosball a > trade marked name? > > I work for a large company and we are interested in using Foosball for a > promotion. Can you point me in a direction to get some answers? Thank > you. > > Mike Murphy > Manager, Contemporary Marketing > Anheuser-Busch, Inc > (314) 577-3681 > > ************************************************************************