So one of the big things in the news lately is the NHL branching into Seattle and how Seattle is getting it’s very own hockey team but they don’t know what the name is going to be.
Cue the media melodrama that sounds a lot like – The Seattle Sockeyes is on the list of names and it would be a wonderful name except this big mean romance author lady has the name trademarked for her books.
A lot of hockey fans love the name the Seattle Sockeyes and are saying a lot of mean things about the “greedy” and “money-hungry” romance author and I’m sitting here watching it all happen and I’m both hurt and furious.
Let’s look at a few facts the media and Seattle NHL aren’t putting in their little announcements and articles, shall we?
One, Jami Davenport, the romance author in question, is a Seattle area resident who has been writing her Seattle Sockeyes romance series since 2014. To date, she has something like nine books, all heavily branded for the Sockeyes and another intersecting series with yet more books to it that mention the Sockeyes in some capacity.
Again, she has been writing these books since 2014.
A group showed up in Seattle and mutterings started in 2017 about trying to give it a solid go at getting Seattle their very own NHL team and Jami, (who full disclosure is a friend of mine) said, “Maybe I should see a lawyer. What if this becomes a thing and they try to pick the Sockeyes?” to which I said, “Better safe than sorry, you should totally do it before it’s too late and you have to change all your books.”
In 2018, before the Seattle Hockey Group even got approval to create their team, Jami trademarked her team names for all of her books for the use in books and literature only (which provides no block to the team using it as their name, just protects her books) and a few months later, in December – BAM! The Seattle Hockey Group got the OK from the NHL and were getting their hockey team.
Immediately name choices started swirling and immediately, the Sockeyes became a standout favorite.
Of course, Jami was contacted by local media outlets for interviews and the first one she granted was with Q13 and let me tell you something, the Sports reporter at Q13 is one of the rudest, most disrespectful assholes I have ever had the displeasure of watching on T.V.
His entire segment, he openly mocked Jami and her novels to a track of his co-anchor’s laughter and I wanted to reach through my television and slap the holy hell shit out of him.
Ever since, the media and the NHL both have mentioned as a footnote, that while a popular name, the Sockeyes is trademarked by a romance novelist and so it’s a big fat question mark on whether or not it can be used because of blah blah blah…
People have been super shitty and it’s been going on for close to two years now.
Here’s what you don’t know – Jami is one of the kindest, most giving people I have ever met.
Here’s the deal. There is nothing about Jami’s trademark that says the team name couldn’t be the Sockeyes. It just says she’s safe to use it for books and literature and they can’t name the team the Sockeyes and turn around and say – ‘you can’t use this anymore – change everything about your work and branding.’
That was the whole point in getting the trademark that she got.
To prevent, this eventuality that could come up costing her, you know, the tens of thousands of dollars a little indie romance author doesn’t have at her disposal to rebrand nine+ books but is barely a drop in the bucket for the multi-billion dollar hockey league that if they really wanted the name, would be willing to talk to her about it – but guess what?
She reached out about potentially coexisting peacefully and they never responded.
They’ve sure had no problem spinning it in the media as her being a greedy self-serving human being that is ruining their lives over a name, though. ‘Oh, we can’t name our hockey team the Sockeyes – this romance author holds the trademark.’ Actually – she doesn’t. She just holds the TM to be able to use the names in books – that’s it.
So to that reasoning, I say – do what now?
If they want it, they’ll pay the money for the hundreds of manhours it will take to go through each book to change names and references, for the changes to cover design, for the new logo designs, marketing materials, literature, website designs, changes to all of her social media – are you starting to catch on to how absolutely devastating this could have been for a small business owner/entrepreneur like her, like me had she not trademarked the name and protected herself?
So yeah. Jami is totally the bad guy here and not the major conglomerate or media machine. Those poor fatcats! (And if you can’t decipher my sarcasm here, I don’t know how to help you.)
Basically, all I’m asking here is that you stop to think about the little guy and if you happen to be a romance reader that’s just been turned onto this whole mess by this blog post, you happen to like hockey or football too, and you’ve never read one of Jami’s books?
Maybe head on over to Jami Davenport’s Amazon author page and have a look at what all the fuss is about. I promise you won’t be disappointed and you’ll be supporting the real underdog in this whole sordid tale.
Peace out, Seattle hockey. I’m sure whatever name you decide on will be great and I’m really looking forward to cheering our boys on because even though I’m definitely not fond of how this was handled, I still love me some hockey – and so does Jami. I think she may have even bought in for some kind of ticket package already.
You go Jami! You told your readers about this a long time ago, apparently the investors don’t know how to READ your letter!! Keep up churning out those books!