The Arizona Coyotes, previously known as the Phoenix Coyotes and the Winnipeg Jets before that, moved to Salt Lake City for the 2024-2025 NHL Season. The team is technically an expansion team, but that's a whole other thing. The team held an online fan vote to narrow down the choices for the new name. In a sign that organizations have gotten the hang of online voting, Pucky McPuckface was not among the options.
The vote narrowed down a list of twenty possible choices to six: Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom, and Utah Yeti. Applications for all six names were submitted to the United States Patent and Trade Office. The application to trademark "Utah Yetis" was denied, stating that "Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that is so similar to a registered mark that it is likely consumers would be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties,"
That's right; the USPTO thinks that consumers buying a hockey jersey with "Utah Yetis" on it will be confused or deceived, thinking they are purchasing an expensive cooler instead. The office also denied the applications for Utah Blizzard, Utah Venom, and even Utah Hockey Club, the name the team is currently using.
Timothy Geigner sums it up quite nicely on Techdirt:
[T]he fact is that the Utah Yetis name sounds awesome and is awesome. It is also absolutely not going to somehow cause the public to think that the Yeti cooler people are now owners of an NHL franchise. And we know it won't cause any "false association" with the NHL, since the company already has that licensing deal in place that creates a real association.
The team has three months to respond to the decision but may explore other options to use the name Utah Yetis, which is the overwhelming choice of the fans.
Previously: How does a $40 Yeti bucket stand up against a $2 hardware store version?
