Bill Belichick’s Taylor Swift tweaks not enough to get around Patriots’ trademarks

Bill Belichick ran into a roadblock while trying to trademark four phrases with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

The USPTO shot down four applications filed by Belichick’s company, TCE Rights Management LLC, which is managed by his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, due to the “likelihood of confusion” with previously filed trademarks that the Patriots — Belichick’s former NFL employer — hold. 

The trademarks in question are for four phrases that TCE Rights Management LLC submitted to the USPTO, which included “Do Your Job (Bill’s Version),” “Ignore the Noise (Bill’s Version),” “The Belestrator (Bill’s Version)” and “No Days Off (Bill’s Version).”

The phrases — sans the “Bill’s Version” — were trademarked by the Patriots in years past, and the USPTO wrote that it rejected the request 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.” 

“The addition of a term to a registered mark has often been found to increase the similarity between the compared marks where, as in the present case, the dominant portion of the marks is the same,” the USPTO wrote. 

In its application, TCE Rights Management LLC indicated it sought the trademark for clothing, audio and video streaming material, books, and the production of media. 

The USPTO is giving the 73-year-old Belichick’s company three months to appeal its ruling. 

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben wrote on his website that the attempt to trademark the phrases by adding the “Bill’s Version” moniker — mimicking Taylor Swift’s strategy when she re-recorded old songs — didn’t work because the beloved songstress was dealing with copyright law rather than trademark law. 

“The song titles were not protected by trademarks (as the title of a ‘single work of art’ is not protectable as a trademark), therefore, she could simply add ‘Taylor’s Version’ at the end of the song title and re-release the new recording,” he wrote. “Belichick’s case is much different. Trademark law is about brands — names that identify products or services. Adding ‘Bill’s Version’ to an already registered trademark doesn’t create a new brand; it just makes a confusingly similar version of an existing one. That’s why the USPTO sided with the Patriots and denied Belichick’s applications.”

Gerben noted in the post that Belichick could attempt to file a petition to cancel the Patriots’ trademarks if they aren’t actively using them, which would open the door for Belichick’s applications.