The Utah Hockey Club is unable to put the puck in the net due to its efforts to choose a permanent name for the team. The team intends to have its name for the 2025-26 NHL season, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected an application to trademark “Utah Yetis.” ESPN reported.
“Yeti” or “Yetis” was the preferred choice among the six finalists selected in a fan vote. The other options are Blizzard, Mammoth, Outlaws and Venom. Remaining with the Utah Hockey Club (or Utah HC) is also a possibility.
However, the USPTO has rejected the copyright for those six names, according to El Atlético. Those rulings are not final, giving Utah the opportunity to defend the names. The team has three months from the dates of the denials to try to move the branding process forward.
Mammoth was turned away in November, while the other five were detained in January.
Fans of YETI (the company that makes cups, coolers and bags) won’t be surprised that Utah is having a hard time getting a trademark for “Yeti.” The USPTO rejected “Utah Yetis” for “likelihood of confusion.” reported Ryan Miller of KSL.com.
Even with “Utah” as part of the name, the use of “Yeti” would be “so similar to a trademark that consumers are likely to be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services.” of the parties,” says the USPTO ruling, issued on January 9.
Although “Yeti” would be the name of an NHL franchise, the team would also sell “clothing, namely shirts, t-shirts, jerseys, sweatshirts, sweatpants, caps, hats, scarves, one-piece clothing for babies and toddlers , pajamas”. , scarves, underwear, gloves, socks, shorts, suspenders, swimsuits, coats, jackets, robes, pants, leggings, sweaters, earmuffs, cloth bibs, belts, warm-up suits, headbands and bracelets,” according to the trademark application.
But YETI, or Yeti Coolers LLC, already owns several trademarks in standard and stylized fonts for almost all of those same items.
That’s not an automatic deal breaker. Utah just needs to provide more evidence to argue a claim for the new mark. Perhaps the team can check out the Detroit Red Wings, who exist in the same world as the Red Wing Shoe Company.
The six potential names were selected by fan vote from an initial list of 20 before the Utah Hockey Club began its first season in Salt Lake City after moving from Arizona last April. So far this season, Utah has a record of 21-19-7, good for 11th in the Western Conference.