Forget the Oklahoma City Supersonics, thank goodness. The team’s new owners abandoned their intent-to-use applications for those trademarks less than one week after filing them. (Previous STL discussion here.)
What now appears to be in play is the Oklahoma City Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls, Thunder and Wind. Those are the new intent-to-use applications the NBA Development League, LLC, filed with the Patent and Trademark Office on July 21.There are five applications filed for each mark.
As the Seattle Times noted, no applications appear to exist for OKLAHOMA CITY OUTLAWS, TUMBLEWEEDS, RUSTLERS, STEALERS, CARPETBAGGERS or CRIMINALS.
Still wondering why the team’s new owners had to throw a scare into us by filing intent-to-use applications for OKLAHOMA CITY SUPERSONICS when they appeared to be contractually prohibited from having a bona fide intent to use marks containing the word “Supersonics” in connection with their team.
All of the new names seem weak to me, but at least they don’t trade on the legacy the team left behind in Seattle.
Michael Atkins
A reader writes:
“The NBA Development League is a basketball minor league owned by the NBA, http://www.nba.com/dleague/.
I would assume that these are applications for a potential team in that league, not a new name for the NBA team in Oklahoma City.”Thanks much for sharing. I’ll follow up when I know what’s happening for sure.