From A&M's website: The Aggie War Hymn Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck All hail to dear old Texas A&M Rally around Maroon and White Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies They are the boys who show the real old fight That good old Aggie Spirit thrills us And makes us yell and yell and yell So let's fight for dear old Texas A&M We're gonna beat you all to Chigaroogarem Chigaroogarem Rough, Tough, real stuff Texas A&M Good bye to texas university So long to the orange and the white Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies They are the boys who show the real old fight 'the eyes of Texas are upon you' That is the song they sing so well Sounds Like Hell So good bye to texas university We're gonna beat you all to Chigaroogarem Chigaroogarem Rough, Tough, Real stuff, Texas A&M Saw varsity's horns off Saw varsity's horns off Saw varsity's horns off Short! A! Varsity's horns are sawed off Varsity's horns are sawed off Varsity's horns are sawed off Short! A! The second verse of the Aggie War Hymn was written by J.J. "Pinky" Wilson in 1918 while he was standing guard on the Rhine River during World War I. When he returned to the U.S., he wrote the first verse (the one no one sings) in lieu of the fact that we don't always play t.u. However, the Ags of the time felt that the first verse was too much like the Ivy League fight songs and refused to sing it. As a result, it never caught on and that is why we sing the second verse twice. The Singing Cadets sing both verses of the song to reflect the entire work of Pinky Wilson. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't care if it's one verse or half the song, UT is in A&M's fight song, and UT's in A&M's. The schools have their ties. I'll admit that A&M's is a bit fanatical. The only reason I posted UT's was because someone asked for it. As for the Seattle thing, I don't know anything about it past the article that was posted. I know that it says that A&M has defended their trademark in the past in regards to pro teams. It also says that in the past that the "12th Man" theme has been fan driven, which I assume means that no organized group has really pushed it. If Seattle wants to retire their #12 jersey, sell #12 jerseys, or wave #12 flags, there's nothing A&M can/could do about that. If they had tried, people would have been making fun of them then. My understanding from the article is now A&M has reason to believe that the Seahawks organization may be producing "Seahawks-themed '12th Man' merchandise," which is why they are reacting now.
rocketteen - wow dude. Calm down. Here's the problem. The assertion that "A&M must defend its trademark" is *not* true. It doesn't have to. The trademark coverage could be used to ensure that the Aggies don't get screwed by people making knock-off t-shirts and crap like that. But to hit a different league with different colors in a different state and different city... eh. As for Windows... Personally, I think you're helping to make the point. It's a stupid trademark. It's generic. This has been argued for years (see Lindows case). The same is true for "12th man". I think this particular Aggie tradition does rock, but I think the legalese involved is the stupid part. Can you not see the difference? Anyway, enjoy your bile and hatred towards "tu" and Gallery Furniture (wtf?).
So I just heard from a friend of mine that is working this case that A&M filed and won a 14 day injunction for the Seahawks to cease using and selling the 12th man trademark today.
My information is that Aggies filed for a TRO in Texas state court which the seahawks have yet to even oppose (or more likely, remove to federal court - which is what should happen in any IP case EDIT: should add, trademark cases can be local, but patent & copyrights are exclusively federal) which is basically not worth the paper its printed on, in practical terms..unless you think the Texas Rangers are going to fly to seattle and force them to take there 12 flag down from qwest field.
I'm not a lawyer, but maybe after another few years I'll be one. I think this is what you were looking for: Public Domain Look under the "Trademark" section.
Longhorns if I'm not mistaken have a trademark/copyright/patent on their burnt orange color, so no other team can use it. I also had heard, and maybe u REAL longhorn graduates can tell me, but didn't texas sue a restaurant to change their name b/c they had "Bevo" in it a while back. Texas knows that if they have the rights to something and don't protect it, they can lose it, so y can't A&M do the same...and I'm not asking Mr. Meogi...he can go F*** himself.
The difference is that a restaurant that uses "Bevo" in it's name is most likely trying to create some type of relationship with the University when they have no affiliation at all. I'm not picking sides because I think both sides have their merit (A&M has it trademarked, but Seattle has been using before it was trademarked). It will be interesting to see how this turns out, I highly doubt anyone will actually get sued over this (too many PR issues).
