NBA Files Trademark Rights For Six Oklahoma City Nicknames
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NBA Files Trademark Rights For Six
Nicknames For Oklahoma City Franchise |
The US Patent & Trademark Office revealed that the NBA last Monday filed trademark rights to six nicknames for the Oklahoma City franchise -- Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls, Thunder and Wind, according to Mike Baldwin of the DAILY OKLAHOMAN. However, there is "more evidence Thunder could be the nickname," as a search of the domain name Web site whois.com "reveals the domain name Thunder.com was created for Thunder.Net Communications, based in California, in July of 1994 but the domain name rights [expired] Sunday." It is unknown whether Oklahoma City franchise Owner Clay Bennett has "held discussions with Thunder.Net communications." View reader reactions to the nicknames (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 7/26). TRUE HOOP's Henry Abbott wrote using Energy as a "'rah rah' word for athletes strikes me as kind [of] eighties." On the nickname Wind, Abbott wrote, "Maybe they're registering this for the dance team? Or as a desperate ploy related to promote an owner's alternative energy business?" Abbott also wrote he dares the OKC owners "to name the team the Barons," while as for Bison, "rich white men can not be seen to be sending a predominantly black group of employees into the workplace with the word 'bison' across their chest" (ESPN.com, 7/25).
OFFICE SPACE: The Oklahoma City franchise Friday announced it has reached an agreement with Leadership Square to lease 25,000 square feet of downtown Oklahoma City office space for the team's business offices. The space will serve as the temporary home for franchise's business staff until permanent offices are completed at Ford Center over the next two years. The team also will have temporary offices and a team store on the ground floor of Leadership Square (NBA OKC).
NO END IN SIGHT: In Oklahoma City, Randy Ellis reported the conversation in which NBA Commissioner David Stern warned Starbucks Chair & CEO Howard Schultz that his lawsuit seeking to rescind his '06 sale of the then-Sonics to a group led by Bennett would be "very expensive" took place June 25, "about a week before" the settlement of the trial over the franchise's KeyArena lease. Schultz: "I told Commissioner Stern that I did not consider the NBA's assurances regarding locating a team in Seattle to be strong enough for me to dismiss ... (the) lawsuit. In response to that, Commissioner Stern said that the NBA would offer no further assurances" in regard to an NBA team playing in Seattle (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 7/26).
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