After saying goodbye to TB12 prior to last season, New England Patriots fans can welcome MJ10 to Foxborough.
Per a new trademark application filed by attorney Darren Heitner, New England quarterback Mac Jones intends to sell “MJ10” branded apparel that will include shorts, shirts, hats, beanies, sweaters, sweatpants and socks. Also, long jackets (as opposed to short ones) because New England is cold.
Following news of the trademark application being filed, the easy assumption to make is that Jones is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady and his “TB12” brand in the same manner that former Patriot Julian Edelman did with his somewhat ill-conceived “JE11” brand. That assumption may be 100% correct, but it is also possible Jones and his representation filed for the trademark as a preventative measure in order to stop someone else from profiting off of what could become the young quarterback’s nickname. (He may want to grab “Mac 10” as well.)
Either way, Jones is actually following in Brady’s footsteps as the current Tampa Bay Buc and his camp filed an application to trademark “Tom Terrific” for use on trading cards and posters in June of 2019. Criticizing for the filing as Tom Terrific is synonymous with longtime New York Met Tom Seaver, Brady and his camp indicated the filing was preventative in nature and that they never planned to produce any Tom Terrific-branded merchandise. It ended up being a moot point because the patent office rejected the trademark request.
“Registration is refused because the applied-for mark consists of or includes matter which may falsely suggest a connection with Tom Seaver,” the ruling stated. “Although Tom Seaver is not connected with the goods provided by applicant under the applied-for mark, Tom Seaver is so well-known that consumers would presume a connection.”
Regardless of Jones’s motivations for the filing, no one will care if he copies Brady off of the field if he can even come close to replicating him on the gridiron. The No. 15 overall pick in the draft and the fifth quarterback taken, Jones leads all rookie passers in passing yards (2,850), touchdowns (16), completion percentage (70.3%), passer rating (97.1) and yards per pass attempt (7.5). Backed by a strong defense and a solid running game, Jones has helped the lead Patriots on a six-game winning streak to an 8-4 record and has emerged as the clear favorite to win the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year award. Brady didn’t win that, but he did win the Super Bowl as a sophomore.
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