After a historic run as head coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick is in the first year of a new era of his career. Now leading the North Carolina Tar Heels, the six-time Super Bowl winner has been under extreme media scrutiny, now that he and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, have entered the college football scene.
In what has been the latest development out of Chapel Hill, Belichick and Hudson reportedly had multiple patent and trademark applications denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“The phrases they attempted to trademark would cause a ‘likelihood of confusion’ with previously filed ones,” Michael Rothstein of ESPN wrote. The New England Patriots, Belichick’s former employer, hold the rights on the trademarks Belichick and Hudson sought.
The rejected applications included “Do Your Job (Bill’s Version),” “Ignore the Noise (Bill’s Version),” “The
The couple reportedly filed to get back rights to “Do Your Job (Bill’s Version),” “Ignore the Noise (Bill’s Version),” “The Belestrator (Bill’s Version)” and “No Days Off (Bill’s Version).”
Belichick And Hudson’s Request Denied
Though now at UNC, the Patriots still hold the trademark rights to three of the four sayings Belichick and Hudson hoped to regain the rights of.
“The patent office released the decisions last week, saying it rejected the requests because ‘it is likely consumers would be confused, mistaken or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties,’“ Rothstein wrote.
They were all trademarked while Belichick was head coach in New England, but the team remains in control of each. Even with the coach parting ways from the team, away from the NFL for multiple years, and now with a new coaching job, his applications were still denied.
As Rothstein wrote, the next step in Belichick attempting to continue to push for his use of the trademarks, ‘would be to challenge whether the Patriots had still been using the trademarks or whether Belichick had ownership of the trademarks in his contract.
A company associated with Belichick, TCE Rights Management, reportedly received the rights to use “Chapel Bill (Bill’s Version),” “The Belichick Way,” and “The All-Belichick Team” when an application was sent in April.
Another Layer To The Beef With The Patriots
Belichick being denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Patriots ensuing involvement, is just another layer of the up-and-down history the coach has with the franchise and owner Robert Kraft.
While the relationship between the two was highlighted in the documentary titled ‘The Dynasty,’ Belichick recently made comments that once again put his relationship with his former team under a microscope.
It was reported that Belichick banned any Patriots scouts from entering North Carolina’s football facility. After his first win with the Tar Heels, the coach confirmed the news, for what from Belichick’s words could be seen as ‘mutual contempt‘ between he and New England.
(via Tar Heel Tribune / YT)
“It’s clear I’m not welcome there around their facility. And so they’re not welcome at ours,” Belichick said.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel responded to Belichick, saying the team’s former head coach is more than welcome at their facility.
“That’s an individual choice,” Vrabel said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we start looking at players. We’re going to focus on our football team. I think that’s their prerogative to make the decisions they feel like are best for them. I think we’ll have to find other ways to get the information for any players we want to look at, at North Carolina.”
Though just 1-1, Belichick’s time at North Carolina has been anything but uneventful. After a Week 1 thrashing against TCU, the Tar Heels beat Charlotte 20-3. They host the Richmond Spiders in Week 3.
UNC’s Bill Belichick Gets More Bad News, Patriots Beef Continues