The National Football League is demanding that local New Orleans lifestyle brand DNO refrain from using its signature logo depicting a fleur-de-lis on the side of a spiked skull on its popular "Defend New Orleans" T-shirts and apparel.
In a cease-and-desist letter dated July 17, the NFL claims DNO founder and owner Jac Currie has engaged in the “unauthorized use” of an NFL trademark or mark “confusingly similar thereto.”
The fleur-de-lis is the logo of the New Orleans Saints and all logos, names, colors and designs of the 32 NFL teams belong to NFL Properties, the letter says.
The Saints fleur-de-lis is revealed before an NFL football preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals in New Orleans, La. Sunday, Aug. 17, 2018.
“DNO’s unauthorized use of the NFL Marks, and other confusingly similar logos and marks, is likely to cause customers to believe that DNO or its products are licensed, authorized, or affiliated with the NFL or the Saints Club, when they are not,” the letter says. “Such unauthorized uses constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition and misappropriate the goodwill and reputation of the NFL and the Saints Club.”
The letter gives Currie until July 24 to agree to stop using DNO’s iteration of the fleur-de-lis, which became a widely used symbol of defiance, resilience and pride across the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A historic symbol, or a trademark?
The history of the fleur-de-lis in New Orleans goes back centuries, not decades, which Currie’s attorney Scott Sternberg argues in a reply to the NFL, dated Thursday.
“The fleur-de-lis has been synonymous with New Orleans since its founding in 1718. It has been featured on the city’s official flag since 1918. The area was named for Phillippe II the Duke of Orleans, whose family coat of arms used the fleur-de-lis,” Sternberg wrote.
The letter also says that DNO has been operating for 20 years and has a registered trademark associated with its marquee design.
Designer Jac Currie's "Defend New Orleans" T-shirts, originally created to protest gentrification, assumed a profound new significance after Katrina.
“Since 2003, Defend New Orleans has been inspiring hope and pride in one of the most meaningful cities in the world” Sternberg writes. “We will not advise them to stop.”
The NFL did not return a call seeking comment.
In a prepared statement, DNO said, “Without more evidence that the last 20 years of sales have somehow been unknown to the NFL and some unknown legal peril, we will not stop.”
Familiar pattern
The brewing battle isn’t the first time the NFL has taken aim at a local business claiming trademark infringement around league properties and those of its member teams.
Dozens of lawsuits have been field over the past two decades. As recently as February, the league shut down the Instagram accounts of artists selling Philadelphia Eagles gear ahead of the Super Bowl.
Closer to home, the NFL spent from 2010-2012 in federal court claiming the rights to the phrase “Who Dat?” The slogan was trademarked in the 1980s and was the mantra of Saints fans for decades, largely going unnoticed. But after the Saints won the 2010 Super Bowl, the league tried to claim the trademark of the slogan and go after royalties to a song by the same title. The NFL later settled.
In its letter to Currie, NFL attorney Bonnie Jarrett says the NFL licenses its marks and logos to companies that are willing to pay to use them for promotional and advertising purposes. The letter goes on to say that without “permission from the NFL or the appropriate member club, NFL marks may not be used in any manner that may confuse the public into believing that DNO” has a sponsorship agreement with the NFL or the Saints.
Asked if the Saints would give DNO permission to use the fleur-de-lis logo, New Orleans Saints spokesman Greg Bensel could not immediately say.
"We looked into this trademark issue when it was brought to our attention, as there are many," Bensel said in a prepared statement. "We are confident this will be resolved quickly with the NFL."
