Dana White told TMZ that it will send proceeds of sales from its merchandise with the UF-SEA mark to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a charity that John Oliver supports.
White and Oliver traded barbs after the comedian on his HBO show took a shot at the UFC for coming back to live action amid the pandemic. White shot back at Oliver as he usually does to which Oliver responded with a takedown of the UFC’s Fight Island idea citing it was taken from a suggestion about what to call the promoter’s UFC events on an island in international waters.
Making light of the situation, Oliver made a few suggestions including UF-SEA. “Why didn’t you just call it UF-SEA, Dana, it’s perfect?” Oliver challenged White during the monologue. White then shot back after the May 17th episode.
In an interview with ESPN following Oliver’s telecast, White bragged about taking the trademark as his attorneys filed a mark application with the United States Patent and Trade Office. Zuffa filed for the UF-SEA mark application and it is still pending registration. But, Zuffa (as it can), has forged ahead with UF-SEA gear.
In response, on the May 31st episode, Oliver went back at White.
Oliver also challenged White to sue him after he revealed a BADDEST MOTHERFUCKER mug during his show. Zuffa owns the mark but not for mugs.
The show also uncovered several trademarks that Zuffa abandoned including YOU WILL SUBMIT for the use on baby booties, fanny packs and walking canes. Oliver stated that his show, Last Week Tonight would apply for the mark and sell baby outfits with it. In fact, it has and even thanks Dana White aka “Dumps McFightman.”
A month or so ago John Oliver of @LastWeekTonight said he would file for the mark YOU WILL SUBMIT previously owned by #Zuffa. He has and is selling onesies and even is thinking Dana #UFC pic.twitter.com/bCxKGCkrHl
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) July 8, 2020
After the episode, White appeared in an early June interview and showed a LAST WEEK TONIGHT mug.
But in the TMZ interview on Wednesday, White extended an olive branch to Oliver as he is selling the UF-SEA shirts but will donate the proceeds to the Bob Woodruff Foundation. The organization, which is supported by Oliver, raises funds for post-9/11 veterans, service members, families and their caregivers.
Payout Perspective:
Alls well that ends well. Although I wrote about the potential copyright infringement lawsuit Oliver could have had with Zuffa, this was a better outcome. Cooler heads prevailed as White has said he is a fan of Oliver’s work and while it’s clear he may have been offended by Oliver’s critique of White, they did not escalate this to litigation. In fact, there will be a beneficiary out of this squabble as proceeds from the shirt will go to a charity supported by Oliver. One might expect that proceeds from the onesies with the YOU WILL SUBMIT logo will go to some charity as well.
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