The NCAA has taken aim at urology clinic’s trademarked term about vasectomies
Each March there is a surge in the number of vasectomy procedures in the United States, and it has nothing to do with spring’s arrival.
But it does have everything to do with the arrival of the NCAA college basketball tournament.
After the procedure, a man is instructed to rest. And the smorgasbord of college basketball games is the perfect time to do nothing.
“We began noticing a trend in 2014,” Dr. Ryan Berglund of the Cleveland Clinic told Fox4Now two years ago. “We started looking into it and found that more men like to schedule the procedure when there’s something great on TV.”
“There’s a doctor’s note that says you must be on the couch, not asked to do anything,” Berglund added. “Not cutting the grass, not painting, nothing. So you’ve got a free pass for the weekend.”
Urologist offices have started spreading the word about the time to have a vasectomy performed, and one drew the ire of the NCAA. It filed a trademark cancellation request to stop a Virginia urology clinic’s use of the phrase, “Vasectomy Mayhem.”
The NCAA believes the clinic’s phrase is “confusingly similar” to “March Mayhem,” which is one of the trademarks currently held by the non-profit organization that makes a reported $800 million from the men’s basketball tournament.
“According to the cancellation petition, the NCAA has alleged that this particular urology practice started off by using ‘Vasectomy Madness’ to promote its services to be had around the time of the NCAA Tournament,” Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, said in a Twitter video. “Apparently, the NCAA and this urology practice settled that case, and the urology practice agreed not to use ‘Vasectomy Madness’ going forward.
“So instead, they started using ‘Vasectomy Mayhem.’ The NCAA still considers this too close, especially because they own a registration for ‘March Mayhem,’ as well as all the other March Madness trademarks.”
In its petition, the NCAA said the urology office’s use of its trademarked “Vasectomy Mayhem” is likely to mistaken as “legitimately connected with, or sponsored, licensed or approved by” the NCAA.
You can read the NCAA’s petition here. Yahoo Sports said the urology practice has until Tuesday to respond and avoid automatic cancellation of the trademark.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 9:16 AM.
