The five young women who won Olympic gymnastics gold for the United States in London were repeatedly called the Fab Five by television announcers and others. But that term has already been trademarked by basketball player Jalen Rose, who was on the 1991 Michigan team that used that same nickname.

So USA Gymnastics is planning to try and trademark the term “Fierce Five” to honor the team and make a few bucks in the process, according to Bloomberg. The team will have to battle for the trademark, though it will likely be easier than beating out Russia for the gold to get it. Continue reading...

When you’re getting repeatedly knocked down by guys who weigh hundreds of pounds, bad stuff is going to happen no matter how many suits of armor you put on. The NFL has been riding a sea of bad publicity in recent years as concussions pile up on current players and former players claim that the league didn’t do enough to protect them from brain injury.

The latest bad news for the league comes in the form of a lawsuit by 40 former players and some of their poor spouses who are “seeking damages for the painful and debilitating injuries they suffered from repetitive head traumas during their play in National Football League games as well as in practice and training,” according to a press release. The suit claims that the league basically didn’t pay attention to the problem even when players and former players brought it up to them. 

While this isn’t going to hold up most NFL fans from turning on their tube on Sundays this fall, it may give a few kids and their parents pause when their kid is lining his or her walls with posters of NFL players and dreaming of making it to the pros someday.Continue reading...

You’re just sitting watching the game, enjoying the dull rhythm of massive millionaire players pounding back and forth down the court to help make other millionaires even richer through ticket sales, souvenir sales, beer sales, and, of course, jersey sales.

Suddenly NBA owners have found a new way to make some dough from that last category. And who doesn’t like to make a buck?

The NBA Board of Governors has voted to allow teams to sell small advertising patches on uniforms ("just above the heart") starting in the season after next, according to the Houston Chronicle. That seemingly little change could bring in $100 million annually for the league and open the door to other North American professional leagues to do the same thing.Continue reading...

After this weekend, a whole slew of Major League Baseball’s biggest names will be heading to Kansas City for next week’s All-Star Game. And when you’ve got a bunch of big names together, marketers can’t be far behind.

While the July 10th game itself will have plenty of Your Brand Here Moments for the FOX cameras, some advertisers aren’t waiting for Tuesday’s game to attach their name to the 2012 event.

State Farm is sponsoring the HomeRun Derby on July 9th on ESPN. Firestone sponsored the final fan Twitter vote that will get the last few players onto the team. All-Star voting is a bit more of a popularity contest than anything else and the final hours of fan support can be frenetic. What better time for a marketer to get its name in front of a massive amount of eyeballs?

Chevrolet, which is not coincidentally the official vehicle of Major League Baseball, is also getting itself out into the public eye early by bringing a fleet of its 2013 cars, trucks, and crossovers out to K.C. to showcase to baseball fans (and whoever else wants to take a gander).

"We're looking forward to introducing our family of Chevrolet vehicles to current and new customers in Kansas City, and celebrating our shared love of baseball," stated Phil Caruso, Chevrolet national promotions manager. "We will have product displays, ride and drives and other activities around Kansas City to enhance the fan and customer experience."

When LeBron James made his infamous decision two summers ago and took his talents to the Miami Heat to share space with fellow stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, it appeared that the south Florida team was ready to build itself a massive trophy case and start filling it pronto. 

The team couldn’t quite get it done last year versus the Dallas Mavericks but has now achieved its big goal of winning an NBA championship with the Big Three. The re-tweeting James may be one of the NBA’s best player, if not the best right now, but he’s been told numerous times that he won’t be remembered so much down the line if he can’t come up with some championships.

This was his third trip to the Finals, with one coming while he still ruled the world of the Cleveland Cavaliers. And after all of that, LeBron’s pals over at Nike were ready as soon as the last buzzer sounded in the team’s Game 5 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that finished off the series with a tribute video to the King.Continue reading...

‘It’s all about you!’ is the rallying cry for the new UEFA.com website, giving fans one-stop shopping for all things UEFA EURO 2012, delivering coverage of the upcoming Union of European Football Associations tournament in 12 languages and confirming the official 23-player squad lists.

Content for all UEFA digital/mobile platforms and publications for more than 160 journalists, correspondents, editors, photographers, coordinators, web producers, translators and interpreters working from eight host cities, combines with innovative features for the final tournament, kicking off June 8, including:

• Customisable MatchCentre - expert commentary, live photos and tweets, videos, polls, statistics, lineups and heat maps and a Tournament Map as an interactive guide to EURO.
• Player Browser - users can compare and contrast the 16 squads and browse the editorial and data profiles of all 368 players
• Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, YouTube and Twitter links, and fans can tweet questions in the continuing #Ask feature that has featured Xavi Hernández, Steve McManaman and Pierluigi Collina.

The International Broadcast Centre in Warsaw is the editorial, coordination and production hub, coordinating with UEFA HB and with ICT for hosting and live applications. The French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish sites are managed from the IBC and produced and monitored at respective agencies in Lyon, Munich, Milan, Lisbon, Riga and Madrid. The Chinese, Japanese and Korean sites will be taking the finals to Asian markets.Continue reading...

The New Jersey Nets have pretty much stunk for a few years now. The last time the team had an actual winning record was way back in 2005-'06.

Since May of 2010, they’ve had a new majority owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the first foreign owner of any NBA team and the recent loser of the Russian presidential race to Vladimir Putin. And next season, they will have a new home and a new look. The team is moving to Brooklyn to a brand-spanking-new arena and the team took two measures to celebrate the change now that their New Jersey days are over.

The Brookyn Nets also unveiled a video, entitled “Hello Brooklyn,” to celebrate the transition to the team's new home and stadium as well as the new logo — which was designed, by the way, by Nets minority owner Jay-Z.Continue reading...

• BMW talks up sustainability as automaker unveils colorful designs for Olympics loaner fleet of 4,000 cars and SUVs.

• Some London residents may get missiles stationed on their rooftops as city firms up security plans.

• London mayor Boris Johnson complains that Heathrow airport chaos is damaging UK reputation ahead of the Games.

• McDonald's Coca-Cola and Cadbury criticized for Olympics sponsorship.

• Yahoo plans biggest Olympics coverage ever thanks to P&G and Visa sponsorship.

• China signs Wurth as Olympics basketball team sponsor.

• Organizers struggle to keep up with web ticket sales to football/soccer fans.

• New technology will measure impact of extra traffic on London.