UFC Sues Ubisoft Over "Fighters Uncaged"

[RaychelSnr]

UFC owner Zuffa Inc. has decided to sue Ubisoft over a tagline on the back of the Fighters Uncaged box:

Quote:

"UFC owner Zuffa LLC filed the trademark infringement suit against Ubisoft over a phrase on the back cover of the Xbox 360 game Fighters Uncaged, which says, "Become the ULTIMATE FIGHTING weapon!" Zuffa claims the phrase is "identical or confusingly similar" to its trademarked "Ultimate Fighting" name. "Defendant's invitation for players to 'charge head first into the vicious world of illegal fighting' tarnishes the goodwill Zuffa has in its UFC marks," the company said in its lawsuit. "Zuffa has grown a successful mixed martial arts organization by moving away from the image of mixed martial arts as illegal street fighting, and taking it into the realm of a legitimate sport. This was no easy task and required years and much effort to reach today's legitimacy and widespread acceptance.""

Of course, the suit should be customers suing Ubisoft for putting out a terrible game. The game reviewed at a 3 out of 10 here at Operation Sports, which makes it one of the lowest rated games in our site's 10-year history.

[JerseySuave4]

this may sound like a petty thing but they are trying to distance themselves from that old stereotype that UFC is basically caged streetfighting. Theyve worked hard to turn it into a more respectable sport and if they indeed have that trademarked then its their right to sue.

[ven0m43]

I feel like the UFC will and should loose this battle over this dumb issue.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by ven0m43

I feel like the UFC will and should loose this battle over this dumb issue.

You are 100 percent wrong. The UFC owns the "Ultimate Fighting" trademark. The Ubisoft game clearly uses the mark in that description and it is clearly trading off the fame and familiarity of the mark and the UFC name. Its pretty clear trademark infringement.

[tpshogun]

Yeah, I think this is a legitimate suit. As lame as it seems, as said above, the UFC is trying to distance itself from the "Glorified Street Fighting" label. UFC should win this for sure.

[allBthere]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

You are 100 percent wrong. The UFC owns the "Ultimate Fighting" trademark. The Ubisoft game clearly uses the mark in that description and it is clearly trading off the fame and familiarity of the mark and the UFC name. Its pretty clear trademark infringement.

That may be the case, but I fundamentally disagree with it. Also, how much money do you feel ZUFFA is entitled to?

Their choice to sue is odd as well since no one is buying the game, most people don't even know it exists.

But in the end I disagree with their right to sue over saying "ultimate fighting weapon" in the description on the back of the box. "ultimate fighting weapon" isn't a sport, UFC ultimate fighter or any of that. I think it's a waste of time, money and it's petty.

[Beantown]

Quote: Originally Posted by allBthere

I think it's a waste of time, money and it's petty.

However, at the end of the day it's their brand. "Ultimate Fighting," "Ultimate Fighter," and pretty much any other variation of those two are the UFC's brand. Their organization is called by that brand, their weekly television show is called by that brand and they use that slogan.

It may be petty to us, but this is their business and someone taking your brand and putting it on the back of their box is well worth a suit to get it removed.

[goh]

It's because of what it's associated with. If they put become the ultimate fighting weapon on the back of Prototype I don't think they'd care. At the very least I suspect they'll have to change it to become an awesome fighting weapon or something like that. There's also implication here that on the back of the box ULTIMATE FIGHTING is capitalized which of course has its own implications.