North Texas upset over TV ad that calls Michigan State 'Mean Green'

Harry · October 4, 2017

A television ad for this Saturday's Michigan-Michigan State showdown refers to the Spartans as "Mean Green."

An athletic director in Texas isn't happy about that.

Wren Baker, the athletic director at North Texas, tweeted on Tuesday night that he's sending Michigan State and ESPN a cease and desist letter over what he calls the unauthorized usage of a trademarked nickname.

North Texas says it has been using the moniker for its athletic teams since the 1960's, when its defensive line featured future NFL Hall of Famer Joe Greene.

Baker told USA Today on Tuesday night that the school's attorneys planned on sending letters to Michigan State and ESPN on Wednesday morning.

He also referenced a basketball game last year, when Michigan State wore lime green uniforms that were referred to as "Mean Green Hyper Elite."

According to a Michigan State spokesperson, Spartans athletic director Mark Hollis reached out to Baker on Wednesday morning "expressing MSU's and the athletic department's awareness of the importance of the trademark, and assuring him that we would not intentionally intrude upon its connection to North Texas."

read more: http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2017/10/north_texas_upset_over_tv_ad_t.html

Christopher Walker · October 4, 2017

Wren bowing up and I like it.

Quote

"expressing MSU's and the athletic department's awareness of the importance of the trademark, and assuring him that we would not intentionally intrude upon its connection to North Texas."

Cool, so stop.

DeepGreen · October 4, 2017

"Similarly, the "mean green" basketball uniforms were created and named by Nike, not Michigan State."

Let's sue Nike as well. New Athletic Center and stainless steel lockers will be on the way!

DT 90 · October 4, 2017

It was intentional. ESPN and MSU were just flippant about it.

UNTLifer · October 4, 2017

Man, what a nice change. An AD that won't stand for this B.S. I am not the litigious type, but let's take them to court and cash in!

DeepGreen · October 4, 2017

Where does the industrial clean "Mean Green" fit into this? They started using the name many years ago and we couldn't/didn't do a thing about it. At least the AD at the time didn't do a thing about it. Are we sure we have the rights to the "Mean Green" name???

golfingomez · October 4, 2017

another chance for people to recognize that we are UNT and not NTSU

greenjoe · October 4, 2017

Michigan State knew what they were doing. So did ESPN. Everybody in the sports business knows everybody else's nickname.

But nobody thought that little school in Texas would kick about it.

A similar situation occurred last season when the Seattle Seahawks referred to their fans as "the 12th man." A&M stood up immediately and either stopped it or made Seattle pay for the infringement.

But this is why it's so important that we identify as North Texas and not UNT. And also that North Texas wear green. When we show up in black or grey, it's hard to demonstrate why we should call ourselves Mean Green.

And by the way, trademarked or not, if we don't defend our intellectual property, we are giving others "tacit permission" to infringe on our trademark.

Thanks Wren

GO MEAN GREEN

southsideguy · October 4, 2017

now that is what i call a defense.

untjim1995 · October 4, 2017

Yet another reason that Wren Baker is already the best AD I've ever seen us have in my almost 30 years of following the program...he actually cares about us enough to show it to our alumni.

UNTFan23 · October 4, 2017

Speaking of The Wren:

MeanGreenTexan · October 4, 2017

Just now, UNTFan23 said:

Speaking of The Wren:

I certainly hope this does not stop him from sending the Cease/Desist letter... just in case they decide to try it again.

TreeFiddy · October 4, 2017

I feel like $1 billion is a reasonable figure to help ease our pain and suffering.

Once may be an accident, twice is concerning, three times and you have a problem. Strike two Spartans.

aztecskin · October 4, 2017

The specific use of the the Mean Green name in conjunction with an athletic team is the issue. I think the cleaner or even this or my site are a different area because no one would confuse those with an athletic team. Seeing the michigan state football team or basketball team out while ESPN calls them 'mean green' is very confusing when BEIN Sport says 'Mean Green vs La Tech'

---

Funny this reminds me of the time when NT played at UT-Austin and I was walking around Rainey street. I saw a bunch of green shirts and was disappointed to see they were Sparty fans gathering to watch them play someone. Meh.

GMG

MeanGreenTexan · October 4, 2017

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

Where does the industrial clean "Mean Green" fit into this? They started using the name many years ago and we couldn't/didn't do a thing about it. At least the AD at the time didn't do a thing about it. Are we sure we have the rights to the "Mean Green" name???

Sounds like a good sponsor/partner to me!
"Mean Green Industrial Cleaning Products. The official cleaning products for Mean Green opponents' skidmarks."

aztecskin · October 4, 2017

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Sounds like a good sponsor/partner to me!
"Mean Green Industrial Cleaning Products. The official cleaning products for Mean Green opponents' skidmarks."

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4809%3Al2ra3a.2.51

Trademarks are given in specific use cases. NT trademarked 'Mean Green' in (from what i've seen so far) athletic teams, blankets/throws, buttons, etc.

Mean Green Carpet Clean and the others have a TM on their name/use combination.

Matt from A700 · October 4, 2017

I know this is a Michigan-based news source, but one little thing ticked me...

"North Texas says it's been using the Mean Green moniker since the 1960's".

We ARE the Mean Green. This comes off as if our nickname was in question and the writer had to contact an administrator to get the 411 on what our nickname is.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Matt from A700

drex · October 4, 2017

Exactly why I pushed so hard to get North Texas licensed by Collegiate Licensing Company in the late 80's. There is probably a licensing infringment element of this issue, too.

oldguystudent · October 4, 2017

Man, this is a gold mine!

Somebody needs to go after these guys.

And these guys (see their business phone number)

And maybe even this guy

But seriously, I'm seeing this thing all over the internet right now and I like it!

MeanGreenTexan · October 4, 2017

3 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

I know this is a Michigan-based news source, but one little thing ticked me...

"North Texas says it's been using the Mean Green moniker since the 1960's".

We ARE the Mean Green. This comes off as if our mascot was in question and the writer had to contact an administrator to get the 411 on what our mascot is.

For you old-timers,
When did we officially stop going by "Eagles" and start going by "Mean Green"? I thought I remember being referred to as the Eagles during my time at UNT, but when I google back that far, all I see/hear are "Mean Green" references.

UNTLifer · October 4, 2017

27 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Man, this is a gold mine!

Somebody needs to go after these guys.

And these guys (see their business phone number)

And maybe even this guy

But seriously, I'm seeing this thing all over the internet right now and I like it!

All Pro Foundation is owned by alumni.

Green Mean · October 4, 2017

41 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

For you old-timers,
When did we officially stop going by "Eagles" and start going by "Mean Green"? I thought I remember being referred to as the Eagles during my time at UNT, but when I google back that far, all I see/hear are "Mean Green" references.

I think we officially changed the nickname in the early 2000's. I still maintain we should have remained the Eagles as of the official nickname and have a secondary nickname as the Mean Green. Still a head scratcher to me on why RV and the SGA during that time let this happen.

UNTLifer · October 4, 2017

3 minutes ago, Green Mean said:

I think we officially changed the nickname in the early 2000's. I still maintain we should have remained the Eagles as of the official nickname and have a secondary nickname as the Mean Green. Still a head scratcher to me on why RV and the SGA during that time let this happen.

Mascot = Eagles

Nickname = Mean Green

Green Mean · October 4, 2017

Just now, UNTLifer said:

Mascot = Eagle

Nickname = Eagles

Nickname 2 = Mean Green

Fixed. Growing up in the area I and everyone that knew of NT knew the school as the North Texas Eagles. The official nickname was changed and I still think it was a bad decision.