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Will American Needle Burst the NFL's Balloon?
Author(s) -
Blair Roger D.,
Wang Wenche
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.2792
Subject(s) - license , league , football , trademark , intellectual property , pooling , business , advertising , law and economics , law , economics , political science , computer science , physics , astronomy , artificial intelligence
For decades, the National Football League pooled their intellectual property and issued nonexclusive blanket licenses. No one complained. When the National Football League decided to award an exclusive license to Reebok for headwear production, one of the former licensees, American Needle, filed suit. In this paper, we analyze the competitive significance of exclusive licensing as well as joint marketing of trademark licenses. We suggest that the decision to issue an exclusive license has no anticompetitive potential. Pooling the thirty‐two clubs' trademarks, however, cast potential anticompetitive problems. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.