Race-naming protocol

[Coastwalker]

I just found that someone in our area has started a new race, using the exact same name as our race, which we've held for 10 years. I've written a polite email to ask them to change the name of the new race. What are my options if they decline? Should I trademark our name, based on our use of it for 10 years, so I can exert a little more pressure to get them to change? What would you do?

Thanks,

Jay

[JamesM]

There must be hundreds of 'Jingle bell jogs', 'bunny hops' and 'St Patrick's day' runs around the country.

Some races are trade marked but not many. Generally there is an unspoken rule that you don't name your race the same as another race that is in your catchment. So two local races that are a hundred miles apart may be fine, becuase they are local and don't have overlap, whereas a national or regional race needs to be more careful.

When races were organized by clubs, (with or without charity sponsorship), the racing folk had some history and integrity to the sport, so they intuitively knew this. Now that a lot of little companies have sprung up that handle timing and other things for all comers, any group who think having a 5K is a good way to raise money are in the game. They often know nothing about running as a sport and often have little knowledge of the local market. This leads to anomalies like duplicated race names.

You have done the first thing you can do, ask them to change the name. I suggest a letter on your club letter head will go over better than an email. You should point out any confusion that might happen if you are both advertising in the same regional publications and both listed on the same regional running calender.

If they don't change the name of their race, then as a second option you may want to suggest that you both put the name of the city in front of the race name: For example.... Fort Lauderdale 'Run for Cover'. This will help you distinguish the difference and will show you are prepared to meet them half way.

Let us know how it works out.

[Trailrunnerdude]

I think JamesM has given you a lot of good information. If your race name is an important aspect of the race that identifies it with a place or event, or if it is catchy enough that it causes people to be interested in the race, then I would get it trademarked. After all, the race's name is the intellectual property of the race.

[JimG]

Just 2 days ago there must have been thousands of "Turkey Trots" held across the land - they only way to distinguish between them is by appending the town name. Independence Day probably has almost as many "Four on the Fourths" (I know of 2 here in CT).

Next weekend there is a "Jingle Bell Run" on Saturday and a "Jingle Bell Jog" the next day 25 miles away (they're usually held a week apart).

That's one suggestion you can make to this new event - slightly alter the name of their race to differentiate it from yours

[Veteran Runner]

I just found that someone in our area has started a new race, using the exact same name as our race, which we've held for 10 years. I've written a polite email to ask them to change the name of the new race. What are my options if they decline? Should I trademark our name, based on our use of it for 10 years, so I can exert a little more pressure to get them to change? What would you do?

Thanks,

Jay

Are the race organizers runners and part of the New England running scene who should know better?

Is the name of your race somewhat generic or is it unique?

Have you mentioned the issue to Andy S? He's generally fairly open to calling out those who are engaging in bad form.

[Cannon]

For the past several years, the Event Directors College at the Portland Marathon has featured a presentation by an Intellectual Property Attorney, Martin Hsia. If you don't have true legal assurance (i.e. registered trademark, etc.) you actually own your event, he'll scare the bejesus out of you! The question goes beyond event names, but includes URL's (if you own .com, do you also control .net, .org, etc.), and even events themselves. Martin's email is mhsia@cades.com, or you could contact Les Smith, RD of Portland Marathon for a personal referral - Martin pulled Les' cojones out of the fire a while back.

[JamesM]

Lawyers and legal stuff costs money. If you are a big race with cash to burn then you can get good value for your money, but with smaller races diplomacy normally works best.
I do believe lawyers are useful, but you are better of using them for things that you NEED their help for, like liability issues and checking you have the correct insurance polices.

Some times people steal more than your race name. We have a number of successful races and other organizations have setup almost identical races on our course or almost identical courses running the event just three to four weeks before ours. These are often 'signature venues' where we were the first to use the location or the course, and the competing club or organization has essentially just duplicated the event. Now that's poaching.

You have not said much about your event or even what sort of org is putting it on, but I suggest if this is a club event you tie the event to the club. A club can have more credibility than and individual race, and that credibility can extend across several events during the running session.
If your club is known for running competent events then put the club on the front page of the app, as in "xxxxxxxx race" presented by "yyyyyyy club".

[Coastwalker]

Thanks for your replies! I've heard back from the other race director who said he didn't name his race after ours (the name is on CoolRunning, but not on their web site). He said that he will get it changed on CoolRunning, and that he'd come up with a different name for his race.

Our race is named after a local body of water, so it isn't anywhere near as generic as a Turkey Trot or Jingle Bell Run. The race is organized under the name of a local non-profit, not a running club. The other RD has a running-related business in the area, has organized other races in the area, and has even run our race, so clearly he knows the name.

I thought of contacting Andy on this issue, but wanted to wait to see how the other RD responded before I went 'public.' Andy knows the other RD quite well, so it would be interesting to see how he played the issue.

We have a local road race series that has been copied, so I've seen things like this happen before. It would be a shame to have to trademark everything to protect what we've got when this used to be a pretty friendly and cooperative community, but if this isn't resolved easily and amicably, we'll probably look toward going that route. Thanks, Cannon, for Martin's contact info. We are a small race, and a fund-raiser, and I would hate to have to divert any monies away from our beneficiary to resolve this issue. I sure hope it doesn't come to that!

Thanks again for all your replies and suggestions.

Jay

[Veteran Runner]

Based on what you said I figured out the races and the players involved.

The names and the image that the name brings clearly creates a wrong and misleading situation.

<<<< ..........The other RD has a running-related business

If you still have a problem here in the not to distant future, I'll offer to speak to the other party as I know him well.

I can't imagine that I will have to speak to him however.

Just before I hit submit here I decided to check out something you mentioned. Though many of the calendar listings on Coolrunning are put up by the race management itself, some are put up by the Coolrunning staff as part of a race promotion package. I worked part time for CR for many years and still help once in awhile on some things so I checked the site maintenance logs for the calendar listing in question.

That listing was put up by a newer member of the CR staff who while he is a casual runner he is not wired into the history of the many races around here.
From what I see the race in question was just a 5K added to a longer distance event and the race actually had no name other than "Oh, by the way, we have a 5K for those who don't want to run the half." (my words)

Since each calendar listing has to have a meaningful name I'm sure that the first part of the name just got added by the CR staff person. Had it been one of the races I'd put up for CR over the years I would have realized that the name was a conflict and would have contacted the RD immediately.

.

[Coastwalker]

Thanks, VR.

Thanks also for the explanation of how races can be given names by the CoolRunning staff. I just assumed that if a race on CR has a name, it would have come from the organizer. It was that listing on CR that caught our attention in the first place.

I also appreciate your offer to speak to the other person on our behalf but, based in his response to my email, I don't believe that'll be necessary.

[Veteran Runner]

Thanks also for the explanation of how races can be given names by the CoolRunning staff. I just assumed that if a race on CR has a name, it would have come from the organizer.

This appears to be one of those "if the stars and planets are in perfect alignment, then...." situations.

Almost all of the calendar listings which CR puts up (which are not that many compared to the thousands put up by the races themselves.) will have a clear name as taken from a website, paper app or site promotion contract. I'd bet the contract for promotion between the event and CR only has the "Half" as the buyer.

Actually, having a separate calendar listing for the 5K is fairly unique. If all the "events" which exist on Coolrunning had separate listings for each distance in the event, the calendar would be a bloated mess.

Even now all the weekly series races and fun run events are not all that welcome to many site visitors. We'd designed a show/no show toggle button for the calendar (for weekly series) but it never got implemented before the sale of CR to Active.com.

[JamesM]

We have a local road race series that has been copied.....

If you do things right or come up with good ideas you have to expect that other events will copy them. While some times we think it would be better if they made their own innovations you have to accept that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I am glad it all got smoothed out. It goes back to my prior post on this topic which suggested diplomacy is the cheapest and often the quick and simple solution.

[Coastwalker]

Thanks, James.

I don't mind imitation, but I do have an issue when someone takes an event's name.

I hope this issue is on its way to being resolved: The right things have been said, but nothing has changed as of yet. So I'll just continue to monitor the situation and hope that the change we've been looking for comes soon.

I agree with you that direct diplomatic communication is often the best way to get to the heart of an issue, and to get two parties to work together. And it is so much more civilized than screaming at, threatening, or suing someone.

Jay