Texas A&M Suing Indianapolis Colts For Using 12th Man Trademark

The 12th Man has been tied to the Seattle Seahawks in the past, but only because the team paid the owner of the trademark for the right to use it, Texas A&M. Lots of football teams like to refer to their fans as being the "12th man," but Teas A&M has held the trademark to the term for sometime which was enough to stop most teams from trying to use it for their own benefit.

After the way Texas A&M sued Seattle for trademark infringement you would have thought everyone would have learned not to do it, but it appears that is not the case.

via Twitter

Apparently the Colts have been using it enough to get Texas A&M's attention, and the univeristy has decided to sue the Colts because of it:

BREAKING: Texas A&M has sued the Indianapolis Colts for unauthorized use to its 12th Man trademarks.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 12, 2015

After a few internet searches all I could find was a few occurrences where players and coaches referred to the fans as the 12th man, but I could not find any official use of the phrase on products or anything else.

So what exactly prompted the suit is a mystery, but apparently Texas A&M has seen enough to warrant a lawsuit.

UPDATE:

Something like this might give them reason enough:

Texas A&M lawsuit claims Colts have been infringing on their 12th Man trademark for 9 years, this was used this year pic.twitter.com/z8Rs62ENxm

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 12, 2015

[Twitter]

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