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It took Utah’s NHL team a little while to firm up its identity, but the franchise will be known as the “Mammoth” after playing its inaugural season under the generic “Hockey Club” moniker. That rebrand was complicated by trademark issues that prevented the team from adopting “Yeti,” and it went on the offensive after discovering there could also be an issue with the new name.
The Arizona Coyotes were finally put out of their misery following the conclusion of the 2023-24 season when Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith purchased the beleaguered franchise for $1.2 billion before Salt Lake City got a new addition in the form of Utah’s first NHL team.
Smith made it clear he was in no rush to roll out a hasty rebrand and pledged to give fans the chance to contribute to the quest to decide on a new name. “Yeti” quickly emerged as a frontrunner, but it fell out of the running thanks to the popular cooler brand that was more than equipped to stake a firm claim to that particular trademark.
When everything was said and done, the team that began its new chapter as “Utah Hockey Club” officially announced the adoption of the “Utah Mammoth” in May, and based on the amount of time, effort, and money that went into designing the new logo and uniforms, it seemed safe to assume its legal team had done its due diligence to assure there wouldn’t be any issues on the intellecutal property front.
However, we’ve been treated to a somewhat unexpected twist.
A hockey bag manufacturer is being sued by the Utah Mammoth over a trademark dispute
I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds of trademark law, but it can be a somewhat tricky area to navigate due to the nature of a realm where there’s plenty of ambiguity that has the potential to be a source of controversy.
As I alluded to above, one of the reasons the Mammoth adopted that name as opposed to Yeti was the presence of a preexisting brand that could have easily argued the franchise was attempting to encroach on its territory. Operating an NHL team and peddling coolers are two firmly different enterprises, but the company that does the latter and sells t-shirts, hats, and other forms of merchandise featuring its logo could easily argue that the former doing the same had the potential to confuse consumers.
That brings us to Mammoth Hockey, a brand that started selling “top-shelf” hockey bags in the wake of a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014. According to The Salt Lake City Tribune, the company was in communication with the other hockey-related Mammoth and agreed to amicably coexist before Utah pulled the trigger, and it’s now found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit after allegedly having second thoughts once the name was finalized.
The legal filing asserts the bag brand not only publicly endorsed the Mammoth rebrand in a post on social media but also approached the franchise about a potential collaboration once it was finalized. However, things apparently took a turn when it was cemented, with the lawsuit claiming they threatened to pursue a trademark dispute in “some unknown forum, at some unknown time.”
The franchise subsequently beat them to the punch after getting tired of waiting while asking a judge to settle the matter, with a spokesperson sharing a statement that reads:
“Utah Mammoth and the NHL believe strongly that we have the right to use the name Utah Mammoth under federal and state law, and that our use will not harm the defendant or its business in any way.
We have taken this action only after careful consideration based on the defendant’s position. We are not able to comment further on ongoing legal matters.”
The lawsuit also notes that Mammoth Hockey declined to officially register a trademark at any point since getting off the ground more than a decade ago, and a search of USPTO records appears to confirm that is the case (all five results for “Mammoth” related to hockey endeavors are pending marks linked to the NHL franchise).
It’s worth noting that you can still stake a claim to a trademark even if you haven’t gone that particular route, but doing so tends to give you better standing if you ever end up in court—a lesson Mammoth Hockey may have learned a bit too late.