The Seattle Seahawks have reached a new agreement with Texas A&M for licensing rights to use the “12th Man” terminology for the next five years.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell provided some fascinating details on the new deal.
“As part of the new five-year deal, the Seahawks will pay an undisclosed royalty fee for using the mark just in the Pacific Northwest. A source also told ESPN that the Seahawks annually will help fund some of A&M’s legal bills to protect the mark.”
Another aspect of this new contract is that Seattle will no longer use “12th Man” on any of its social media or in its Ring of Honor.
Instead, the franchise filed for 53 trademarks on terms that include “12” or “12s,” per Rovell.
“We are obviously pleased to have in place the new agreement with the Seattle Seahawks that serves to control and minimize any use of Texas A&M’s trademark ’12th Man’ by any entity other than Texas A&M and its authorized licensees,” said Texas A&M system chancellor John Sharp, in a statement.
The Seahawks started using the term “12th Man” in the mid 2000s. Then Texas A&M sued them, for which Seattle ended up paying the university $100,000.
Since then, Rovell reports it has been annually paying $5,000 for the right to use variations of the “12th Man” phrase.
The price tag this time around is significantly higher.
Just In: The Seahawks will pay Texas A&M $140,000 over the next 5 years for the limited rights to use school's "12th Man" trademark.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 11, 2016