Isaac
Years ago
BA: Sydney Spirit name OK
A disappointing decision, in my opinion, from Basketball Australia in almost endorsing the Sydney Spirit name choice for the former Razorbacks NBL club. WNBL team Bendigo Spirit had complained after having used the name for one full season already before West Sydney adopted the nickname with no awareness that it was already in use by a WNBL team.
Derwin mentions trademarks but it's the 'whole vibe of the thing' - what faith can you put in an NBL club who don't even keep a cursory eye on their partner league to think "wait, the name seems familiar, let's keep brainstorming"!? Plus their logo is embarrassing for the league.
This from the Bendigo Advertiser:
The Bendigo Spirit's fight to keep its name exclusively has fallen on deaf ears after the Sydney Spirit were yesterday given the green light to use the name.
Basketball Australia chief executive officer Scott Derwin released a statement yesterday afternoon on behalf of the interim board of Basketball which had investigated the controversy surrounding Sydney's use of the Spirit name.
''While the Board was sympathetic to Bendigo's objection, given it had not been made aware of Sydney's application to use the Spirit name, it has rejected Bendigo's contention that it would have a negative impact on the team's brand commercially,'' the statement said.
''Bendigo Spirit has cited in its objections the case with the Wildcats as a precedent set by the WNBL, which rejected a name proposed by Christchurch based on the grounds that an NBL team in Perth was operating under the same Wildcats name. It is important to understand that this was in fact based on a legal decision, as the Perth Wildcats had trademarked its name.
''As Bendigo had not registered Spirit as its intellectual property, it has been found that Sydney went through the correct process and received the requisite approvals and initiated the change in its team name in good faith.
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