I just found out, to my great horror, that the UPA has trademarked the phrase “Spirit of the Game”. This must be the greatest oxymoron in Ultimate history!
Discraft resellers have already been told that they can not put the phrase “Spirit of the Game” on discs unless they have approval from the UPA. That is insane! Is this Ultimate? Is this the Spirit of the Game?
I have asked the UPA for clarification but so far they have failed to respond to my emails. Is this patent trademark worldwide? Can you actually do this? Take a phrase that has been used since the beginning of the sport and trademark it? What about the name Ultimate? Is the next step to trademark our game and we all pay the UPA for playing it? Or lets trademark the stall count: stall one™… stall two™… stall three™…
I can’t believe this. I am shocked!
—
UPDATE: reponse from Sandie Hammerly (Executive Director UPA)

The Ultimate Players Association does own the US trademark registration on the mark “Spirit of the Game” (since 1997), as well as SOTG, Ultimate Players Association and UPA.
While I was not a part of the UPA when this process was started, I can assure you that the organization’s goal in doing this was not to keep players and organizers from using the marks, but to protect our sport and players from commercial entities and business who might acquire the mark and prevent us from using it unless a licensing fee was paid…or possibly not at all.
When organizers have asked us for permission to use the mark, to the best of my knowledge, we have never said no.

Did you see the news? The BULA beloved Flashflight disc got an award 😉
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=1485159

“Really Useless Product Award: Nite Ize’s Illuminated Flying Disc takes the prize. Imagine a Frisbee with LEDs that costs $20. Now if it only came with a built-in MP3 player… ”
—Steve Bass (PCWorld)

I am a ‘techy’ and love gadgets… but Steve…. have some non-tech fun too…
Flashflights are great at night. Not every night, but when you are with a bunch of friends on a beach. Couple of beers (you can still do that in Europe 😉 and a Flashflight… I think it is worth $20!
And you know what? When you layout to catch the disc in the sea (a wonderful feeling you should try some time)… the disc still works. Something you can’t say about most MP3 players…

Being Dutch and living in Portugal is probably not the same feeling as being a man in a woman’s body but it is an interesting experience nevertheless ;-).
I grew up with Nordic Ultimate: grass, field shortages, rain, indoor season… The spirit was almost always great but when there were ever any spirit problems on the field they were dealt with more a ‘rational’ approach. Less ‘passionate’. This is how grass Ultimate developed from the start. The first Ultimate evangelists came from the US, Canada, and Western Europe. The style of play, the way most Ultimate players behave (good and bad) is very Western, very Nordic. Intellectual hippy-jocks, someone ones told me…
Beach Ultimate will eventually have more Latino players than Nordics. It is inevitable. In Portugal we play 52 weeks a year on the beach. The lifestyle is more inviting to go to the beach and play disc. The future World Champions will come from the relatively insignificant Ultimate countries such as Spain, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico or Portugal (no offense to all the already existing great players/teams in those countries!)
How will the spirit evolve? No doubt the beach puts players in a great mood. The sea is calming, that sand feels great to walk on, and it seems the disc was made for the beach… 🙂 Mix in the more relaxed attitude towards life and a bit of hot Latino spirit and what will we get? Will the future spirit of Beach Ultimate be like a Mexican spicy dish? A Brazilian samba? Or more balanced Chinese sweet and sour soup with distinct Ultimate overtones?