NCAA sues DraftKings for using March Madness trademarks
The association seeks a temporary restraining order.
US.- The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has filed a complaint against DraftKings in federal court in Indianapolis. The association said it seeks an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the company from using the NCAA’s federally registered trademarks March Madness, Final Four, Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen.
The NCAA said sports betting must not be associated with, endorsed by, or linked to NCAA championships or the student-athletes who compete in them. It added that it has no commercial relationships with any sportsbooks.
It stated: “The NCAA makes clear in the complaint and its motion that every day that DraftKings continues to use these marks, millions of sports fans — and, critically, college students and young adults who are particularly susceptible to gambling harm — are exposed to the false suggestion that the Association has authorised or endorsed DraftKings’ gambling platform.”
DraftKings’ response
DraftKings argues that the terms mentioned are “the universally recognised names for the tournaments and their rounds, used by millions of college basketball fans, journalists, and participants in the sports-betting ecosystem. They are the same words used by other online sportsbooks, who have not been singled out by the NCAA’s fevered complaint”
It claimed that the request for a restraining order was “based on a contrived and manufactured ’emergency,'” and noted that the NCAA has a commercial agreement with a company whose business is providing in-game data to sportsbooks.
DraftKings also claimed its use of the terms is protected under the First Amendment, arguing the NCAA’s trademark claim would fail on the merits. “No trademark gives any organisation the right to monopolise the language fans, players, journalists, and sportsbooks use every day to accurately refer to college basketball tournaments,” the company said.
