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UFC was one of the first sports organizations to return in North America, and they are headed into their fourth event of the past month this weekend. They opened in Jacksonville, Florida, and are now looking to return to UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Before UFC had made its formal return, Dana White said he was working on a “Fight Island” idea for hosting their fights. It has yet to come to fruition, but he has said it is still in the cards.
A couple weeks back, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver suggested that if UFC was going to go through with the idea, the perfect name would be UF-SEA. White was watching and was not pleased with the mocking. However, he has apparently decided to jump on the UFSEA option. Trademark lawyer Josh Gerben noticed that UFC has filed four trademark applications for UFSEA (h/t Darren Rovell).
The US Patent & Trademark Office makes all that information public, so you can read through the details of each. We know they are UFC trademark applications because the applicant is listed as Zuffa, LLC, which is the parent company for the UFC. They were all filed on May 19th, a day after Dana White tweeted out his objections to Oliver’s segment.
It is worth noting that parties can challenge the application. It did not appear Oliver was looking to trademark UF-SEA at the time of his segment, but he’s never been one to backdown from something for humor’s sake. It would not be surprising to see him have some fun with this in the coming week.
Below is a rundown of each trademark application, with a link and the goods and services for which UFC is applying.
Trademark 1
Entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting mixed martial arts competitions and events; arranging and conducting special events for social entertainment purposes; entertainment services, namely, providing non-downloadable audio and video recordings featuring sports and mixed martial arts via the Internet, television, cable and satellite; entertainment services, namely, a multimedia program series featuring sports and mixed martial arts distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; educational services, namely, instruction in the field of fitness and mixed martial arts; providing instructional programs and classes in the fields of fitness and mixed martial arts; sports training services; physical fitness training and conditioning services; and providing information relating to entertainment, sports, mixed martial arts, and sporting events
Trademark 2
Belts; Bottoms as clothing; Coats; Dresses; Footwear; Gloves; Headwear; Jackets; Loungewear; Scarves; Sleepwear; Socks; Sweatbands; Swimwear; Beachwear; Tops as clothing; Undergarments; Warm up suits; Sweatshirts; Sweatpants; Athletic uniforms
Trademark 3
Towels
Trademark 4
Posters; printed event and competition programs; printed photographs; postcards; calendars; printed magazines and newsletters in the fields of mixed martial arts, sports and entertainment; books in the fields of mixed martial arts, sports and entertainment; collectible trading cards; stationery; stickers; decals; bumper stickers; and money clips
Here’s the video when White first complained about Oliver’s UFC segment.
I like John Oliver, I think he's funny.
— danawhite (@danawhite) May 18, 2020
But this is a perfect example of how you can control the narrative by using selective facts. We did approximately 1,100 tests, only 3 were positive, it was a fighter and his 2 trainers and we had 3 events NOT 1 (via @LastWeekTonight) pic.twitter.com/h605hNnLtd