KEY POINTS
  • The Utah Hockey Club faces trademark concerns over possible names including Yeti and Venom.
  • A team executive says the club is carefully evaluating possibilities for a permanent identity.
  • A final decision on the team's name and logo is expected ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season.

The Utah Hockey Club appears to have hit some snags with at least a couple of possible permanent names for the team now more than halfway into its first season in Salt Lake City.

The team filed trademark applications for the final six names — Utah Blizzard, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti as determined by online fan voting — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year.

Among those, Yeti or Yetis seems to have risen to the top as the preferred choice. But the patent office earlier this month issued an initial refusal for use of the name Yetis, citing “likelihood of confusion,” according to documents on the agency’s website.

“The overriding concern is not only to prevent buyer confusion as to the source of the goods and/or services, but to protect the registrant from adverse commercial impact due to use of a similar mark by a newcomer,” a patent office attorney wrote.

Though the office didn’t name the “registrant,” presumably it is the popular outdoor recreation brand Yeti.

While a hockey team might sell different merchandise than drinkware and coolers, there could be some crossover, which apparently isn’t a factor when it comes to trademarks. “The compared goods and/or services need not be identical or even competitive to find a likelihood of confusion,” according to the patent office.

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The Yeti or Yetis team name would be used for “clothing, namely, shirts, t-shirts, jerseys, sweatshirts, sweatpants, caps, hats, scarves, infant and toddler one-piece clothing, pajamas, bandanas, underwear, gloves, socks, shorts, suspenders, swim trunks, coats, jackets, robes, pants, leggings, sweaters, ear muffs, cloth bibs, belts, warm-up suits, headbands and wristbands,” according to the application.

The patent office also issued refusals for the names Blizzard and Venom on the same basis.

The Utah Hockey Club has three months to respond from when the “non-final action” was issued in mid-January to avoid “abandonment” of the applications, according to the office.

When will the Utah Hockey club announce a name?

Asked for an interview or comment about the trademark issues, the Utah Hockey Club provided a statement to the Deseret News from Chris Armstrong, president of hockey operations. He didn’t address the specific trademark issues.

“Since acquiring Utah’s NHL team, we have been carefully evaluating possibilities for the permanent identity of the team, while working within the complicated world of trademarks and intellectual property. The passion of our fans has been incredible and their input invaluable,” he said.

“It has always been our intention to let our season one identity as Utah Hockey Club, the team’s performance and the amazing response from our fans hold the conversation through our inaugural season. We will continue to involve the community in the final stages of the naming and branding process and are fully on track with our plans to announce a permanent name and identity ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season.”

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NHL.com reported in early December that deadlines for decisions on the permanent brand identity are approaching. Creating a new NHL jersey is about an 18-month process, including design, trademark clearance, materials procurement and production of game and retail versions. Utah was able to expedite the jerseys and fan gear for the current season.

Armstrong told the league website that the team is “deep” in the jersey design process for next season, which goes along with brand identity.

“I’d say we’re getting close to needing to make some decisions,” Armstrong said. “I’d say early in the new year. Everybody’s tried their best to work flexibly — or away from hard and fast deadlines — because it is a complicated process, especially on the (intellectual property) side. Just making sure we’ve got everything lined up and buttoned up before we make any firm decisions.”

Any announcement or unveiling likely will come after the season.

“That’s what we’re thinking now,” Armstrong said, per NHL.com. “We’ve been saying we don’t want to take the wind out of our sails on season one. . . . We don’t want to dominate that conversation with what we might be or not be next year.”

Given Armstrong’s comments and the design and manufacturing deadlines, it’s conceivable that the team has already chosen a name or at least knows the direction it’s headed.

It’s also possible that the team is going with a name other than the six that emerged in fan voting. Although Utah Hockey Club co-owner Ryan Smith has talked often about listening to fans during the branding process, the online survey notes that the final decision rests with Smith Entertainment Group.

One thing is sure: SEG has said “Utah” will be part of the name rather than Salt Lake City. Almost all NHL teams identify with a city rather than a state or province.

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What about other Utah hockey team names?

Outlaws appears to be in the clear. The patent office found “no conflicting marks” for that name.

“The trademark examining attorney has searched the USPTO database of registered and pending marks and has found no conflicting marks that would bar registration ... ” according to the documents.

The same goes for Mammoth.

A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll last June asked Utahns the name they preferred from a list of 20 possibilities the Smith Entertainment Group listed on the first online fan survey.

Blizzard, Yeti and Outlaws were the top three. Venom was in the middle of the pack. Mammoth and Utah Hockey were at the bottom, with the latter finishing dead last.

Mountaineers, Fury and Black Diamonds didn’t make the fan survey cut, but rounded out the top six in the Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll.

The patent office has applications on those three names as well as others from a list of 20. Here’s the original list:

  • Utah Glaciers
  • Utah Mammoth
  • Utah Caribou
  • Utah Powder
  • Utah Squall
  • Utah Ice
  • Utah HC
  • Utah Freeze
  • Utah Frost
  • Utah Hive
  • Utah Swarm
  • Utah Mountaineers
  • Utah Venom
  • Utah Canyons
  • Utah Yeti
  • Utah Black Diamonds
  • Utah Outlaws
  • Utah Fury
  • Utah Blast
  • Utah Blizzard

Is Utah Hockey Club here to stay?

Screenshot of Utah Hockey Club trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

As for Utah Hockey Club, there are seven pending trademark applications with that name, all with different logos, including the puck-shaped one with a “Utah” in the center, ringed with “Hockey Club” and colored with mountain blue, rock black and salt white the team currently uses. (There were no logos in the applications for the other five names.)

The office didn’t find any conflicting trademarks, but issued a “geographically descriptive refusal.”

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“Registration is refused because the applied-for mark is primarily geographically descriptive of the origin of applicant’s goods and/or services,” according to the documents.

“Here because the primary significance of UTAH is to identify a geographic location and applicant’s goods and originate in UTAH, purchasers will presume that the mark identifies the place from which the goods and services originate.”

Basically, that means an entity can’t trademark “Utah.”

“As for the additional wording, “HOCKEY CLUB,” in the mark, combining “UTAH” with the terms “HOCKEY CLUB” does not significantly change the overall impression of the mark,” according to the patent office. “The addition of generic or highly descriptive wording to a geographic word or term does not diminish that geographic word or term’s primary geographic significance.”

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