TIGER TOWN PUSHBACK: Name too common to be trademarked by CoMo, email says

The most common name in college sports?

 

COLUMBIA, 4/9/13 (Beat Byte) -- An email making the rounds is boldly challenging Columbia, Missouri-based plans to trademark or otherwise claim title to the name "Tiger Town."

 

Instead of "Columbia: What You Unexpect" -- the city's new slogan -- local businessman Tom Atkins and others have proposed "Columbia: Tiger Town USA."

 

But that idea is raising hackles in other college towns. Forty five teams around the nation use the Tiger moniker, the email notes. "Tigers is the most-used nickname in the FBS (football bowl subdivision). Auburn, Clemson, LSU, Memphis and Missouri are all the Tigers."

 

Other examples: the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers: http://www.iwctigers.com/ the Grambling State Tigers: http://www.gsutigers.com/; and the Trinity University Tigers: www.trinitytigers.com/

 

"If you can erase/substitute the name of a City on a catch phrase, then the catch phrase is not distinct to that City," the email explains. "In the SEC alone, 3 teams have "tigers" as a nickname. That's not unique!" It then lists teams with the Tiger name:

 

Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama)
Benedict College (Columbia, South Carolina)
Campbellsville University (Campbellsville, Kentucky)
Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina)
Colorado College (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Dakota Wesleyan University (Mitchell, South Dakota)
DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana)
Doane College (Crete, Nebraska)
East Central University (Ada, Oklahoma)
East Texas Baptist University (Marshall, Texas)
Edward Waters College (Jacksonville, Florida)
Fort Hays State University (Hays, Kansas)
Georgetown College (Georgetown, Kentucky)
Grace Bible College (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Grambling State University (Grambling, Louisiana)
Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, Virginia)
Holy Family College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Industrial College of the Armed Forces (part of National Defense University) (Washington, D.C.)
Iowa Wesleyan College (Mount Pleasant, Iowa)
Jackson State University (Jackson, Mississippi)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
Occidental College (Los Angeles, California)
Ouachita Baptist University (Arkadelphia, Arkansas)
Olivet Nazarene University (Kankakee, Illinois)
Paul Quinn College (Dallas, Texas)
Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)
Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York)
Saint Paul's College (Lawrenceville, Virginia)
Salem-Teikyo University (Salem, West Virginia)
Savannah State University (Savannah, Georgia)
State University of New York-College of Agriculture and Technology (Cobleskill, New York)
Stillman College (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
Tennessee State University (Nashville, Tennessee)
Texas Southern University (Houston, Texas)
Towson University (Towson, Maryland)
Trinity College (Washington, D.C.)
Trinity College of Florida (Trinity, Florida)
Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas)
University of Memphis (Memphis, Tennessee)
University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri)
University of the Pacific (Stockton, California)
University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee)
University of West Alabama (Livingston, Alabama)
Voorhees College (Denmark, South Carolina)
Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio)