With the NFL season in full swing, the Chicago Bears ended up losing a bit more than just their Week 1 match up against the Atlanta Falcons.
Before the first game of the season, the Chicago Bears ran a campaign on Twitter which would have added Chicago’s logo to every tweet with the hashtag #GoBears on it.
The only problem with that is the Chicago Bears don’t actually own the trademark rights to “Go Bears.” The University of California has a trademark on the phrase “Go Bears” and quickly called out the NFL team on Twitter when Chicago’s logo was popping up after a hashtag frequently used by Cal.
It’s also important to note that this isn’t the first time Chicago had problems with a Twitter hashtag. Last season, in an attempt to use #BearDown, Chicago was once again shut down because the University of Arizona has a trademark on that phrase. When asked by a Twitter user why the official hashtag for the season wasn’t #BearDown, the Chicago Bears official Twitter account simply responded: “Messy legal stuff…phooey.”
In this year’s Twitter showdown, the Chicago Bears went down quietly and chose to use the classic #DaBears (which they have trademark rights to) for this season. Trademarks matter people!
