[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by RumbleCard

To define Trademark "A name, symbol, or other device identifying a product" Their not identifying their product by using those words. Their describing it. Its not a reference of property its a description of it. You do not trademark adjectives or verbs you trademark nouns. To further expand my point when working with trademarks you would think along these lines of thought to protect yourself from infringing. So in the legal sense of it all this case has no merit because the trademark words are only used as adjectives for a completely different trademark product. They're not taking another companies trademark property and representing it as their own. Which would be where the infringement occurs. Infringement might occur had they said "Take these Ultimate Fighters to the street" or something along those lines.

They are identifying a product. The mark "Ultimate Fighting" identifies and is synonomous with the UFC promotion.

You couldnt be more wrong about trademarking adjectives or verbs. If that was true, no one would have adjectives or verbs as registered trademarks. There is a review process used by the USPTO to approve registered trademarks. "Ultimate Fighting" is a registered trademark (not just a in use mark) so its cleared the USPTO registration process and was approved as a mark. The company Xerox has the mark 'xeroxing" trademarked. The term "xeroxing" is considered an adjective.

No offense but your analysis of this claim is extremely basic. You arent even considering likelihood of confusion or passing off which is considered different forms of infringement also. I'm an Intellectual Property attorney for a media company and I handle trademark claims and lawsuits every day. We have sued, threatened to sued and been sued over marks that were considered adjectives or verbs. We've won cases over marks that were adjectives or verbs.

The only argument that Ubi may make is that the use was purely descriptive but thats BS. The use of the mark was clearly to make a consumer think of the UFC and to use the UFC's notoriety to entice someone to purchase the game.