NFLP, Cleveland Browns Put Plaintiff in the Dawg Pound

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has granted summary judgment to the Cleveland Browns and NFL Properties, Inc. (NFLP) in a trademark case, finding that team and the league retained “senior user” status to use the “Dawg Pound,” even though the team had been shut down from 1995 to 1999.   Central to the court’s ruling was the fact that the Browns and NFLP “enforced what they perceived to be their rights in the ‘Dawg Pound’ mark during the period.”