NCAA issues warning to U.S. firms

Friday, April 2, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.

The NCAA has issued warning letters to four Las Vegas hotel-casinos, cautioning them on the use of phrases associated with the organization's popular basketball tournament.

The letters are reminiscent of warnings issued by the National Football League in January asking properties to refrain from using the phrase "Super Bowl" in conjunction with the NFL's championship game.

The four letters from the NCAA are among thousands issued nationwide to companies that used phrases associated with the collegiate basketball tournament that concludes Monday night in San Antonio.

Scott Bearby, NCAA associate general counsel, said the NCAA holds trademarks for the phrases "Final Four," "Sweet 16, " "Big Dance" and "March Madness" as well as a disc-shaped blue NCAA logo. The association shares rights to the term "March Madness" with the association that regulates Illinois high school sports.

Bearby said the four letters sent to Las Vegas-area casino properties range from informational to warning letters, similar to letters sent to about 20,000 venues this year.

The "cautionary, informative" letters generally don't warrant any further follow-up on the association's part, he said. Two other letters were sent to Las Vegas-area properties for alleged trademark infringements.

Bearby would not say what Las Vegas properties received letters from the NCAA, when letters were sent or what specific violations are alleged.

"Las Vegas is not being treated any differently from any other metropolitan area," Bearby said.

Contacted Thursday and late last week, representatives of several major resorts said they had not received letters from the NCAA, nor knew of any companies that had.

The complaints from the NCAA are similar to those voiced by the NFL earlier this year. But the NFL's concerns were more far-reaching.

In January, about a half dozen hotel-casinos either canceled or changed their Super Bowl parties after receiving cease and desist orders from the NFL. The big issue in that case was that the display of big-screen broadcasts of the game violated federal copyright laws.

NFL officials said some properties were charging admission to events featuring the Super Bowl broadcast.

Among the properties receiving letters from the NFL were the Palms, Luxor, Tuscany, Aladdin, Stardust, Sam's Town, Las Vegas Hilton, The Orleans and MGM Grand.

While some properties canceled their events, others reduced the size of the television screens they used to show the game to achieve conformance with copyright law. Others that had planned to charge admission to their parties turned them into free events.

The Palms was one of the properties that altered plans, originally planning to show the Super Bowl game on movie screens in the Brenden Theatres at the resort.

Jim Hughes, general manager of the Palms, said the resort quickly acquired 130 plasma-screen televisions to show the game and come into compliance with the rules.

Hughes said the Palms has not received any notification from the NCAA and he added that the Super Bowl far outweighs the interest of the college basketball tournament.

"Monday's championship game is a nonevent as far as the casino is concerned," Hughes said. "We don't really do a lot of advertising around the NCAA tournament. It's nothing like the Super Bowl."

The first weekend of the tournament, he said, is the showcase of the event since there are 48 games that narrow the 64-team field of teams to 16.

He said the Palms has a "March Mania" slot machine promotion, which doesn't cross the line of the "March Madness" copyright.

Hughes said organizations that have activities tied to high-profile events have to be wary of phrases that are copyrighted.

"You learn over the years not to step on other people's toes," Hughes said, explaining that his property stays vigilant to avoid accidentally using phrases that could generate a complaint.

The NCAA's complaint letters to Las Vegas were spurred by a visit by a compliance officer who visited the city during the opening round of this year's NCAA tournament last month.

Bill Saum, director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities for the NCAA, said he had seen some evidence of trademark and copyright infringement violations when he was in Las Vegas March 17-19 and that the NCAA's lawyers "would be bringing it to the attention of those businesses."

At the time, Saum said he expected to receive voluntary compliance to the NCAA's complaint and that additional follow-up could occur after the completion of the basketball tournament.

Saum said he came to observe gamblers in sports books during his visit to Las Vegas and said he would report to NCAA members how most people in sports books didn't care who won the games, as long as they won their bets.

He said the problem with that type of cheering is that fans have become oblivious to the spirit of what collegiate athletics is supposed to be about -- straight-up competition and the integrity of sports.