Trademark secured for proposed CFL team in Halifax

A group of prospective owners has taken another small step toward bringing a Canadian Football League team to Halifax.

The three businessmen have had their legal representatives register the trademark for the Atlantic Schooners.

“I’m getting lots and lots of feedback on that topic,” Anthony Leblanc, one of the partners, told The Chronicle Herald about potential names for an expansion franchise that could be awarded to Halifax down the road. “Obviously, the Schooners is one that’s come up a lot.”

The trademark would give the group control of the intellectual property associated with the name, including the sole right to the team name on souvenirs and items that include clothing and licence-plate holders. The trademark holder also has an interest in protecting the copyright when it comes to the broadcasting and re-broadcasting of football games and personal appearances by a sports celebrity.

Leblanc, originally from New Brunswick, is the former president of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League. He and his two partners, Gary Drummond and Bruce Bowser, have met a couple of times with the CFL’S board of governors and Randy Ambrosie, the league’s new commissioner, about establishing an expansion franchise in Halifax by 2020 or 2021. Drummond is the former president of hockey operations for the Coyotes and Bowser, who spends a good deal of time in Nova Scotia, is president of AMJ Campbell Van Lines.

Registering the trademark does not mean that the Schooners would be the name of the team, if it is awarded to the business group.

“This is by no means a confirmation that this will be the name but we have asked our law firm to at least start the trademark work on that particular name,” Leblanc said. “I personally would like to go out and do a name-the-team contest and get people engaged when possibly we do the season-ticket launch. There are a lot of great possible names that have been thrown our way. One thing in particular, it will be a branded Atlantic franchise. I think that it is critically important that everyone in the Atlantic provinces feels that this is their team.”

The original Atlantic Schooners were granted a conditional expansion for a team that was to begin play in 1984. Team ownership could not secure funding for a stadium and the franchise application was withdrawn 13 months after it was submitted.

Construction of the elusive stadium remains a major stumbling block for the current ownership group.