A former Jets employee has filed a lawsuit against the team and the NFL, seeking unspecified damages for the Jets’ use of a logo he designed.
Jim Pons filed a lawsuit alleging he came up with the design in the late ’70s while working as the Jets’ film and video director. According to the complaint obtained by TMZ.
The logo in question is a jet plane above the letters “ETS”, which the team has used since 1978 and which was the primary AFC club logo until a change of policy in 1997.
According to TMZ, Pons claims in his lawsuit that he owns the logo and that he created the design outside the scope of his job duties while working for the team.
The lawsuit asks a judge to cancel the Jets’ logo trademark, and Pons is seeking a ruling barring the team from using the design or selling merchandise with the logo without his consent or compensation.
“We are aware of the complaint,” the Jets said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The trademark at issue has been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for nearly 50 years. The mark has continued to be used off and on since then. We believe the allegations are frivolous and without merit.”
The Jets began using a version of the logo twice a season in 2023 and announced earlier this year that they would bring back the design full-time for next season.
Pons worked for the Jets for nearly 30 years, from joining the organization in 1973 until 2000, he said in a promotional video he appeared in and released in April.
In the eight-minute video, Pons talks about how he came up with the design and his experience working with the team.
“I thought it would be nice to just keep the name and move it in a certain direction, and then I started tilting the letters and messing around with them and I thought it would be cool to put a jet plane on top of it,” Pons says in the video, explaining how he came up with the design. “I played around with it for a few days and it started to take shape and it looked pretty good. I gave it to them and they loved it and used it. They took it and the next thing you know, it was a logo.”
On April 15, the Jets announced new uniforms and the return of their logo as a “tribute to the Sack Exchange era.”
In a video released the following day, Pons said the team had informed him they would be returning to the logo he designed, and that he was “delighted” by the design’s popularity.
