The UFC has filed trademark applications for UFSEA as it presumably will be used in connection with this summer unveiling of UFC Fight Island, an island that Dana White has put together to hold fights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The filing comes a week after HBO’s John Oliver spoofed the name UF-SEA on his Last Week Tonight show. Oliver critiqued the organization for coming back to hold sports despite the pandemic. He reported on the island that White envisioned to get going in light of the freeze on travel. Oliver quipped that the name UF-SEA was right there for the company to take.
It appears that the UFC took Oliver up on the name.
On May 19th, Zuffa filed applications in various goods and services categories:
UFC also applied for UFC Fight Island and Fight Island marks last month.
I discuss the UFC Fight Island and Fight Island marks with trademark attorney Erik Pelton.
Payout Perspective:
Interesting enough, but mainly for the legal followers out there, Oliver could feasibly have a copyright claim against the UFC for filing this mark since it originated out of a joke made by his show. Copyrights and trademarks are different but the origination of the name undoubtedly came from Oliver. The applications came out a couple days after the show aired. White saw the show as he mentioned it on his social media. But, don’t expect a lawsuit from this. Whether or not the UFC uses the mark, it’s an alternative to the Fight Island name and it’s a way to sell merchandise (note they applied for the mark for towels).
UPDATED 5/28/20: Thinking about this a little more. The question of whether Oliver would have a copyright claim against the UFC is an interesting question. The UFC trademark is still pending so there’s nothing actionable at this point (IMO) but if Oliver and Last Week Tonight wanted to be litigious its a viable claim. In a social media post, White talked about the episode from Last Week Tonight in rebutting the allegation that the UFC was being dangerous coming back too soon. And the joke originated from Oliver. Copyrights do not need to be registered, they start once you use them although registering them helps solve issues of origination and carries a statutory penalty for infringement. If you follow the world of Copyright Infringement, there are few trials despite many lawsuits regarding copyright claims. The most notable being a lawsuit filed by a comedian against late night talk show host Conan O’Brien in which the comedian posted jokes on twitter and claimed O’Brien used them for his show. That case eventually settled.
The latest example of a famous trademark v. copyright lawsuit occurred in the case of NBA star, Kawhi Leonard. The Los Angeles Clipper sued Nike claiming that Nike filed a Copyright for his logo which he drew himself. Leonard attempted to trademark the logo but faced a cease and desist when he left Nike as a endorser to work with New Balance. Nike countersued Leonard claiming breach of contract. A court sided with Nike in dismissing Leonard’s lawsuit and while Nike’s claims are likely dismissed, the overarching theme is that copyrights may trump trademarks. The owner of trademark rights are prohibited from using their trademark if another party owns copyrights to any element contained within the trademarked art. While the UFC has altered Oliver’s UFSEA to include a hypen it’s clear that the origination is from Oliver. We will see if this picks up traction but as I said before, I don’t foresee a claim although the UFC should give a hat tip to Oliver for its registration.