No Yetis In Utah?

As everyone waits in anticipation for the Utah Hockey Club to finally select a team name so it can brand itself and have a unique identity, a report surfaced today that threw cold water on a number of potential names over which the Utah franchise had been mulling. As we know, there's been a big push for names like Yetis and Blizzard by fans as the team narrows its choices, but Ryan Miller of KSL.com published a story today about the struggles that the Utah Hockey Club is having in trying to trademark specific names.

The image above is of the Abominable Snowman from Disney's Monsters At Work, but they needn't worry about the Utah Hockey Club using a similar image for its logo because the United States Patent and Trademark Office denied Utah's application for the name "Yetis" over a "likelihood of confusion" with the Yeti brand that makes drinkware, clothings, and other merchandise.

As Miller's article states, the USPTO wrote, "In the present case, the wording 'Utah' in the applied-for mark is merely descriptive of or generic for applicant's goods. Thus, this wording is less significant in terms of affecting the mark's commercial impression, and renders the wording 'YETIS' the more dominant element of the mark."

In short, because the Utah Yetis and the Yeti brand are wanting to sell similar items despite being separate businesses, the names are "identical in sound, appearance, meaning, and commercial impression, and thus the marks are confusingly similar". Therefore, the Utah Yetis will not be happening at this time because the Yeti brand is already a thriving brand and business. But not all hope is lost for the Yeti fans out there as the team can re-apply.

According to the rules, the Utah Hockey Club now has three months from January 9 - the date of the ruling - to produce more evidence and make a case for the Utah Yetis trademark to be unique and non-similar to the drinkware company. If nothing else, Utah should be using the Stanley Cup as its example because the trophy awarded by the NHL has the exact same name as Stanley cups, the thermal drinkware made by Stanley 1913. In any case, there are multiple instances of professional sports teams with the same team names that aren't affected by the other's existence, so I'd expect Utah make a formal re-application at some point before May 9, 2025.

It should be noted that Yetis wasn't the only name that was shot down by the USPTO that had been proposed by the Utah Hockey Club. All of "Blizzard", "Venom", and "Utah Hockey Club" were denied as well with the first two being rejected due to the "likelihood of confusion" with other brands while the last one was denied because "the applied-for mark is primarily geographically descriptive of the origin of applicant's goods and/or services". In short, the Utah Hockey Club cannot trademark the name "Utah".

Two names that weren't denied, but require a little more paperwork, were "Mammoth" and "Outlaws". Both names could be fun, but I'm not certain it's better than "Yetis" when it comes to the branding that Utah could have. My hope is that the Utah franchise will regroup, make a better case, and re-apply for the Yetis trademark over the next few months, but we'll see what Ryan Smith decides.

We already know that Utah is in the process of creating jerseys with logos for next season, so they'll have to decide what to do quickly if they hope to have the branding in place by the time the hockey season starts in October 2025. My guess is that they'll re-apply with a far more robust package that shows similar names and brands that aren't affected by each side's existence, and this setback today is more of a window of three months they can use to get their presentation polished. If there's one thing that Ryan Smith has shown, it's that once he sets his mind on something, it usually happens.

If that holds true, we may see Yetis on the ice in Utah next season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!