When you think of motorcycle clubs, one of the last things you want to
think about are some of the legal issues surrounding the club, but next
to liability, protecting the various Iron Butt trademarks take up a good
portion of the Association's resources and unfortunately, budget.
Although you might be inclined to think this is nothing but a boring legal
notice for those doing trademark research, this is not the case. The Iron
Butt name has a rich history and following our name/trademark history
is a great way to learn a little more about the club's existence and growth.
Today, more than ever, it is vital to protect the
Iron Butt family of trademarks.
As a direct result of the Iron Butt Association's success in placing the
Iron Butt name in the press, in advertisements and in catalog and
product endorsements over the years, more and more people are trying to
take and use the Iron Butt name for their own profit. It is important
that each of our members work to protect the name and heritage that each
of you have earned by completing an Iron Butt Association ride. This club
has never aimed to make money by selling products to just anyone. As always,
the only way to enter the club is to earn your membership by completing an
Iron Butt Ride, not merely sending someone $10 for a shirt, hat or pin with an
"Iron Butt" blazed across it because they wanted to make a quick buck. If
just anyone can purchase an Iron Butt shirt, or hat, what value does that
make of the hard work you did to earn your Iron Butt credentials? On that
note, it is vital that you forward unauthorized usage of our names
to: IBA Sports, LLC, 1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 10276, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801, USA or
via e-mail:
ibarides@gmail.com
Name and Trademark History:
1983:
"And what happened was this: At first there was darkness.
Then there was Mike Rose. And then all hell broke loose."Robert Higdon, The History of the Iron Butt RallyIBR HISTROY PART I (PDF download)
In 1986, the Iron Butt Association took the first step forward in protecting
the Iron Butt family of names. Back then the "family" consisted of Iron Butt
(as opposed to the health-sales industry where "iron men" were muscular, we
shaped the phrase to mean a tough-as-nails butt, or immune to pain and
eventually tough as iron, when used in connection to riding a motorcycle
long distances), Iron Butt Ride (a variety of one day or two day long
distance rides of 750 miles or more), Iron Butt
Run (where a group of rider completed an
Iron Butt Ride), Iron Butt Rider [a term that originated from "one that
rides long distances on an Iron Butt Association ride"], Iron Butt
Club [this was actually the original club's name, before Association was
adopted for the larger organization in 1987], Mile Eater (originally placed
on any rider that did more than a 1,000 miles in a day), Odo Heads (riders
that flipped their odometers over 100,000 miles), 100K Club (100,000 miles
or more in a year), additionally, we also protected the phrases
"Dedicated to Safe Long Distance Riding" (expanded in 1989 to "Dedicated to
Safe Long Distance Endurance Riding"),
"World's Toughest Motorcycle Riders" and "World's Toughest Riders"
(this phrase is used where our logo is present and where a lack of room
keeps motorcycle out of the artwork). We also placed trademarks on our
logos, an outline of the United States of America (used in different events,
but generally speaking with the word "Iron Butt" used inside or around
the outline and the more commonly known logo, a globe with the words
Iron Butt or Iron Butt Association through the face or around the globe
itself). Additionally, although protected by copyright on the artwork,
after a long, costly battle with a motorcycle club that took a portion
of artwork with a rider wearing iron underwear from the 1987 rally logo,
we decided advised that future rally logos would be individually trademarked
(in general a trademark offers broader legal coverage than Copyright does).
Beginning in 1991, all rally logos were marked as trademarks of each
individual rally (1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997).
IBA Sports, LLC is represented by:
Joseph T. Nabor
Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery
Suite 1600
120 S. La Salle Street
Chicago, IL 60603-3406
In October of 1988, the Iron Butt Association obtained the trademark (and
ownership) of the Iron Butt Rally (the 11 day, 11,000 mile rally).
In line with IBA's catchy, "World's Toughest Motorcycle Riders"" the
The Iron Butt Association, new owner of the rally, took this opportunity
to protect the phrase, "World's Toughest Motorcycle Competition"" and
"World's Toughest Motorcycle Rally"" both which had become associated
with the Iron Butt Rally. In 2007 these trademarks were transferred to
IBA Sports.
Providing personal information is up to you, our
visitor. IBA Sports, LLC
web site does not use ™Cookies™ (a common
background method used on the Internet
to collect information from site-visitors without
their knowledge or permission).
Only at your option, using a subscribe request
via e-mail (a manual operation the
user must take) will we record any information on
site visitors. However, our provider (ISP)
does collect the following non-personal
information: web browser used, country of origin
(this is actually taken from the users' ISP
domain address where the TCP/IP packet is returned
to), time of day of visit and a ™hit counter™
that records pages visited (but not what user
visited which page - for example, our ISP can
tell us that ironbutt.html received 1451 hits
from AOL [America On Line] users. 80% of that
usage was between 10 am and noon, 10% between
9pm and midnight, etc). We also track the total
number of visitors to our site in an
aggregate form to allow us to update and improve
our site and help us determine service
levels needed for our site traffic. This data is typical of the data
ISPs collect of visitors to their computer system
for traffic analysis. No individual user
data is collected.
We do ask visitors providing e-mail addresses to
let us know if they would like further
information or updates from our site; only those
who request it will receive follow-up
e-mail or other communications from us or from other
sites which we control. We also offer visitors an
™cancel™ option at any time they wish
to cease receiving e-mails or other information
from us. We never sell information you
voluntarily provide us. It is used solely by us
for the purpose of communicating directly
with you.
For more information on IBA Sports, LLC e-mail
ibarides@gmail.com or send
snail mail to: IBA Sports, LLC, 1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 10276,
Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 U.S.A.
Please respect our intellectual property rights. Do not distribute
any of these documents, or portions therein, without the written
permission of IBA Sports, LLC.
