Westgate Las Vegas accuses Barstool Sports of trademark violation
Dispute concerns use of phrase: “good teams win, great teams cover.”
Attorneys for the Westgate Las Vegas Resort have sent two cease and desist letters to Barstool Sports alleging Barstool is infringing on a phrase trademarked by Westgate.
In the most recent letter, which was written on 12 January by Justin McNaughton, patent and trademark attorney for the Tennessee-based law firm Greenspoon Marder, Westgate and its Superbook sportsbook state they have a federally registered and common law trademark on the use of the phrase, “good teams win, great teams cover.”
In the 12 January letter, McNaughton notes the firm previously sent a letter to Barstool on 4 June, 2020.
“This is the second time we have had to contact you, which is evidence that your conduct is willful,” McNaughton wrote. “Westgate therefore demands that Barstool immediately cease such infringing activity, desist from such infringing activity in the future, and comply with Westgate’s other requirements set forth in this letter.”
The letter goes on to allege Barstool used the phrase on its verified Twitter page to promote its sports-related services.
The dispute came to light this week when David Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, tweeted an image of the letter.
Portnoy’s comment: “Nothing makes me more confident when other gambling companies like Westgate Vegas start sending us cease and desists for us tweeting ‘good teams win, great teams cover.’”
Portnoy added, “By the way there is literally no chance they invented that. That’s like saying you invented the question mark,” the latter being a sly reference to a speech by Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Westgate Las Vegas Resort filed an application to trademark the phrase in 2008, and the trademark was registered in 2012 for use in advertising and business.
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