Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Sue Dem 'Who Dats'?

[BlueSky]

How heavy handed is this? The NFL is claiming exclusive ownership of the phrase "Who Dat?" They're not kidding, either; they've sent cease and desist notices to local businesses in New Orleans who are selling "Who Dat" merchandise.

Better yet, they say even using the team's name or colors on apparel is a violation.

===

According to the letter, "any combination of design elements (even if not the subject of a federal or state trademark registration), such as team colors, roman numerals and other references to the Saints" are also trademark violations.

That means that a black shirt featuring XLIV in gold letters, a representation of this year's Super Bowl, is off limits.

===

What asshats. Their claim may be technically correct - at least partially, as they do own the colors, team names, etc. - but they're going to claim exclusive rights to phrases like "Who Dat"? Does that mean they own "J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!", "Who Dey", et. al.? And if they're going to chase down every local business in the country (or world) making items in NFL team colors without an official license, I wish them luck.

So imagine the NFL braintrust sitting around a room.

"Hey, New Orleans is still rebuilding and the whole country is reeling from the economic downturn. What can we do to help?"

"Well, we could use our gazillion-dollar empire and our stable of attorneys whose number probably equals the Russian Army's troop strength to crush small businesses. Take New Orleans for example. See, locals down there have a phrase they chant at games. It's not something the league or the Saints came up with, but why not claim we own exclusive rights to it, and threaten legal action if they don't comply? They don't have the resources to fight us."

Nice.

NFL Stakes Claim on Who Dat

[DelayedPenalty]

The NFL hasn't laid claim to all the "0-16" and "The best worst team ever!" merchandise being sold around Detroit. I wonder why?

[BBTV]

How heavy handed is this? The NFL is claiming exclusive ownership of the phrase "Who Dat?" They're not kidding, either; they've sent cease and desist notices to local businesses in New Orleans who are selling "Who Dat" merchandise.

Better yet, they say even using the team's name or colors on apparel is a violation.

===

According to the letter, "any combination of design elements (even if not the subject of a federal or state trademark registration), such as team colors, roman numerals and other references to the Saints" are also trademark violations.

That means that a black shirt featuring XLIV in gold letters, a representation of this year's Super Bowl, is off limits.

===

What asshats. Their claim may be technically correct - at least partially, as they do own the colors, team names, etc. - but they're going to claim exclusive rights to phrases like "Who Dat"? Does that mean they own "J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!", "Who Dey", et. al.? And if they're going to chase down every local business in the country (or world) making items in NFL team colors without an official license, I wish them luck.

So imagine the NFL braintrust sitting around a room.

"Hey, New Orleans is still rebuilding and the whole country is reeling from the economic downturn. What can we do to help?"

"Well, we could use our gazillion-dollar empire and our stable of attorneys whose number probably equals the Russian Army's troop strength to crush small businesses. Take New Orleans for example. See, locals down there have a phrase they chant at games. It's not something the league or the Saints came up with, but why not claim we own exclusive rights to it, and threaten legal action if they don't comply? They don't have the resources to fight us."

Nice.

NFL Stakes Claim on Who Dat

Well, the "who dat" thing is going too far, but they seem to be within their rights on the other things. Remember, if you don't protect your trademarks, you lose them, so they have to at least act like they're going to do something about this (team names and colors, not "who dat"). It doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to send spies out there to get every little corner mom-and-pop who is making a profit off of trademarked team names and colors, but it makes a statement that they don't accept it, which is kind of the point.

I wouldn't get worked up about this at all (except for the "who dat" thing. That's a local "fan" thing, and shouldn't be trademarkable.)

I'm not sure about the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets thing - yes, it's a fan thing, but the team has merchandise with it, and shows it on the scoreboards, and it does use the team name (and any shirt featuring it would likely be green), so I can see them being upset about that one. But not who dat and who dey.

[jc...]

I thought the Saints ripped it off from the Bengals. But I guess that not entirely true according to Wikipedia.

[Gothamite]

They have the obligation to protect their trademarks (including team colors), but I don't think they can go after use of the phrase, because it was coined a century ago, applied to the team by its fans. They may have registered it with Louisiana, but it looks like they were beaten to the punch there. And according to a TESS search, neither the NFL nor the club have received a trademark on it at the federal level.

I do notice that on October 19th of last year (the day after the Saints went to 5-0), somebody trademarked "Who Dat 19-0". The trademark was for some reason abandoned on November 24th, two days after the former 'Aints went to 10-0, and two whole weeks before their losing streak rendered the phrase moot.

[Firefly]

Just do a XLIV shirt in Mardi Gras colors.

[Sport]

I thought the Saints ripped it off from the Bengals. But I guess that not entirely true according to Wikipedia.

As hard as this is to believe, my research has shown that neither one is a rip off of the other. Who Dat has been around since the 30's in minstrel shows and what not in Louisiana and was used at LSU games prior to being used with the Saints. Who Dat wasn't used widely with the Saints until 1983. The Bengals' who-dey comes from a hudepohl beer promotion and a local car commercial in the 1981 Super Bowl season. Maybe the Bengals ripped off who-dat, but they didn't rip off the Saints' who-dat. I've always been of the opinion that arguing over who was the first to talk like a back woods hick is stupid, but Bengals fans and Saints fans do it any time either team is good and the chant gets national attention. Weirdly, on the intro to Madden 06 they had some Buccaneers fans chanting who-dat.

[Mings]

Yeah neither ripped the other off. People have been using it down here forever, they just didn't associate with the Saints until after the Bengals started using Who Dey.

I don't think we ripped off anyone. The hude in Hudepohl sounds exactly like Who Dey.

Its funny seeing all of the facebook statuses of my friends bitching about the NFL. It is quite funny. I'm only rooting for the Saints for the week and a half long Mardi Gras bender that would be sure to follow.

Edit: They both also just seem to be products of the local dialect, which really means there should be no way in hell to trademark it. Of course they could have enforcers in the local bars down here during the Super Bowl to collect royalties every time someone says it.

[JayJaxon]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

[BBTV]

On the bus after one of my high-school team's wins, we were all yelling "who dat? who dat? who dat say gonna' beat dem dogs?" (we were the Whippets.) I can guarantee that nobody on that bus had ever heard of this associated with the Saints or Bengals (this was '93 or '94). It's really not that unique or special, and really shouldn't be trademarkable (would my team be eligible to be sued?)

[BlueSky]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

[JayJaxon]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I was in the Marine Corps for 6 years with 3 guys from New Orleans. I have also been there on several occasions. So I have obviously heard the accent. But that still doesn't change my mind that the phrase is ridiculous and even more ridiculous that the NFL wants to trademark it.

[Firefly]

"makin' groceries" = shopping for food,

My dad says it all the time (he grew up in the Irish Channel) and it used to drive his wife nuts. "How can you 'make' groceries?!!" she'd ask.

I did the Tour for Cure ride that goes from Hammond into Mississippi and back. I was getting tired and wondered if I was back in Louisiana yet. I stopped for a minute and up comes a ride support guy who says, "Where ya at, babe?" and I knew exactly where I was.

[CDixonDesign]

Alot of it has to do with the crackdown of the Super Bowl merchandise. If the Saints lost in the first round of the playoffs, we probably wouldn't be discussing it. I remember in 03' after the Panthers won the NFC Championship, there were vendors lining every corner of uptown, and by the game actually came around, so many were busted making unlicensed stuff, there were only one or two left, and the Team Store. If there wasn't so much "hype" about Who Dat?, we'd never hear about something like this...

[DustDevil61]

You've got to be freaking kidding me on this one. This one over some local phrase. Seriously, this makes me want to see the NFL/American Needle thing ruled in American Needle's favor, as we all know this is the NFL looking out for Number 1.

I understand that it's the Super Bowl, and so everybody's trying to capatalize off of it. However, when the league is trying to take exclusive rights for a local phrase that isn't found everywhere in the team's stadium (like J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!) or on official team merchandise, it's all about the NFL trying to make as much money as possible off of anything even remotely NFL-related.

I say, let vendors sell Saints-colored t-shirts, as long as they don't have the official logo or wordmark. Those profiting off the league can wait a couple of weeks for their gold-plated shark tank.

EDIT: Changed "Majestic" to "American." I must've had a brain fart.

[B-Rich]

"makin' groceries" = shopping for food,

My dad says it all the time (he grew up in the Irish Channel) and it used to drive his wife nuts. "How can you 'make' groceries?!!" she'd ask.

"Makin' groceries" etymology comes from New Orleans' French-speaking heritage. The term for going to market or shopping in French is "faire marche'" translated directly as "to make (or, to do) market" (I know, French is unusual. In terms of weather, in French one does not say, "It is cold", or "it is hot", but rather "Il fait froid" or "Il fait chaud" which literally translates to "it makes cold/hot"). As English became the predominant language in New Orleans, the faire marche' idiom was bastardized into "makin' groceries"...

Thus endeth today's lesson.

[illwauk]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I can't speak for anything else you listed, but I can personally attest that the ones I've highlighted are just general southern sayings. They're also used (at least) in Virginia and Georgia respectively.

That said, "N'awlins" definitely has its own unique dialect... possibly the most unique in the entire U.S.

[BlueSky]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I was in the Marine Corps for 6 years with 3 guys from New Orleans. I have also been there on several occasions. So I have obviously heard the accent. But that still doesn't change my mind that the phrase is ridiculous and even more ridiculous that the NFL wants to trademark it.

Hence my statement that I was not arguing your point.

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I can't speak for anything else you listed, but I can personally attest that the ones I've highlighted are just general southern sayings. They're also used (at least) in Virginia and Georgia respectively.

That said, "N'awlins" definitely has its own unique dialect... possibly the most unique in the entire U.S.

Again, not arguing, but I've lived in Georgia since 2001 and have never heard either of those sayings here. I've also lived in Florida, California, and Texas and never heard them other than during my 17 years in N.O., so that was my basis for saying they're N.O.-speak.

"N'awlins" has to come to be an all-time gear-grinder since if anybody at all in N.O. says it like that, it's a tiny, tiny fraction of the population. That's a media creation by people like Chris Berman. This has been covered in previous threads so I won't go over the various pronunciations again but rest assured, that is NOT the way locals say it.

Another gripe is when TV shows or movies are supposedly set in N.O. but people talk with sugary Gone with the Wind southern accents. NOT authentic and VERY irritating!

Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

In other news, the NFL has backed off on their 'Who Dat' crackdown.

[illwauk]

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I was in the Marine Corps for 6 years with 3 guys from New Orleans. I have also been there on several occasions. So I have obviously heard the accent. But that still doesn't change my mind that the phrase is ridiculous and even more ridiculous that the NFL wants to trademark it.

Hence my statement that I was not arguing your point.

'Who Dat?' is a really stupid thing to say in the first place. It's even dumber that the NFL is claiming rights to it.

You've obviously never heard a Cajun or New Orleans accent (two different things but similar in some respects). That's actually many people there talk. New Orleans has a unique accent and lexicon. A few examples: "makin' groceries" = shopping for food, "lookin' at the TV" = watching television, "silver dime" = 10 cents (never just "dime", always "silver dime"), "neutral ground" = median of a street, "goin' to the show" = out to the movies.

Not arguing your point, just adding context.

I can't speak for anything else you listed, but I can personally attest that the ones I've highlighted are just general southern sayings. They're also used (at least) in Virginia and Georgia respectively.

That said, "N'awlins" definitely has its own unique dialect... possibly the most unique in the entire U.S.

Again, not arguing, but I've lived in Georgia since 2001 and have never heard either of those sayings here. I've also lived in Florida, California, and Texas and never heard them other than during my 17 years in N.O., so that was my basis for saying they're N.O.-speak.

"N'awlins" has to come to be an all-time gear-grinder since if anybody at all in N.O. says it like that, it's a tiny, tiny fraction of the population. That's a media creation by people like Chris Berman. This has been covered in previous threads so I won't go over the various pronunciations again but rest assured, that is NOT the way locals say it.

Another gripe is when TV shows or movies are supposedly set in N.O. but people talk with sugary Gone with the Wind southern accents. NOT authentic and VERY irritating!

Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

In other news, the NFL has backed off on their 'Who Dat' crackdown.

Well FWIW, I heard "lookin' at the tv" from my ex from Atlanta and "making groceries" from my Virginia ex. As far as I know, neither of them had ever been to New Orleans.

The Wisconsin media certianly did its part to perpetuate the "N'awlins" sterotype when the Packers played in SB XXXI. I guess I should be more understanding since Garry Marshall's version of Milwaukee has done more damage to our city's image than even Jeffrey Dahmer. Perhaps if he'd bothered to actually step foot in Milwaukee before 2008, he'd know that it's nearly impossible to spend a single day in Milwaukee without running into any people of color, let alone an entire decade. And no one from north of the mason-dixon line would mistake a Milwaukee accent for a Brooklyn accent.

Speaking of accents, Hollywood's Atlanta falls victim to "Gone With The Wind Syndrome" as well. The most egregious case I can come up with off the top of the dome is the girl from Atlanta that Eric dated for a few eps of Boy Meets World.

[JayJaxon]

I was born and raised in Georgia and never heard such phrases as "making groceries"

For me, it would be easier to just say I was going to the store. I guess I'll just take my education and go **** myself