The NFL also has a strange view of what people can do with the broadcast of the game. If you`ve watched enough football, you`ve undoubtedly seen this weird little clip: The Super Bowl is the flagship of the NFL every year, and the league has invested heavily in branding and broadcasting the event. Given this investment, it`s understandable that the NFL protects the trademarks and copyrights that surround it. But this protection has led the NFL and other businesses around them to perpetuate a number of myths about what you can and can`t do with the Super Bowl — including the words “Super Bowl.” What if you don`t have any of these business accounts? Fortunately, there is another way to show the game legally. And it`s old school. Do you remember when you had rabbit ears on TV to watch one of the four broadcast channels? If you do not, we will need to verify your identity. Well, copyright law allows you to stream TV from an antenna in your brewery (or any other business) as long as you meet these requirements: The conventional wisdom is that advertisers avoid calling a Super Bowl a Super Bowl because they don`t want to harm the NFL trademark in the name. But if that`s the case, it`s because advertisers are too careful, not because they`re doing something illegal. No one will think that your local grocery store offers sales of chicken wings and doritos because they sponsor the Super Bowl or represent the NFL. They say “Super Bowl” because that`s what people call the broadcast of the National Football League championship game this Sunday. And they`re allowed to talk like humans, just like you and me, who are free to talk, tweet, and text the game. This second sentence is absurd from a legal point of view. It is not illegal to describe or report on one of the biggest media events of the year.
You can talk about the Super Bowl without violating copyright. This is not a case where the NFL politely turns a blind eye while most Americans, public and private, in casual conversations and commercial broadcasts, discuss the game without the NFL`s permission. The NFL would be mocked in court for trying to stop them from doing it — just because you have a copyright in a work doesn`t mean you can stop people from talking about it. Copyright just doesn`t go that far. As far as the PO is concerned, one of the requirements of copyright is that the subject be captured on a “fixed medium”, whether in writing, on video, etc. There is therefore a difference between the transmission of the game, which is protected by copyright, and the game itself, as it is played on the field, which is not the case. While the NFL may argue that the events in the game are subject to its copyright, I would reply that all events that occurred in the game are freely available for a full description and account, since they were available to the public at the same time as the copyrighted broadcast. The NFL and its authorized representatives are the only legal sources for distributing tickets to a conference championship game or Super Bowl. Your broadcaster should not run a promotion giving tickets for these games, even if your broadcaster has validly purchased the tickets. You may only conduct this type of promotion if your broadcaster or a third-party Contest Sponsor has written permission from the NFL to be an official sponsor of the game. The NFL carefully protects its copyrights and trademarks.
If your broadcaster plans to run promotions or contests related to the Super Bowl or any of the conference championship games, you must obtain all necessary licenses to avoid violating NFL rights. Even if your broadcaster has received the NFL broadcast rights for one or more playoff games and/or the Super Bowl, you will not automatically receive advertising or promotional rights that would allow you to use the NFL or Super Bowl name, logo or other trademarks in promotions or contests produced by the Network. You must confirm that such use is permitted under your agreement with the NFL. After watching the 2007 Super Bowl, law professor Wendy Seltzer uploaded a 33-second clip of the game`s copyright notice to YouTube, followed by a few moments of on-screen action. (Well, not really “action”; the Colts were preparing for the launch.) And the NFL`s decision to sue churches for offering Super Bowl broadcasts on big-screen TVs generated so much bad press that Congress even threatened to intervene.