So, in what is crazy news in the WNBA today, we as of right now have got a situation where the Houston team in the WNBA have come out and advertised the fact that they are the Houston Comets while also not having the rights to being called the Houston Comets. As of right now, they do not have the rights to call themselves the Comets and they’ve already come out and called themselves Comets.
So, this is from USA Today. The WNBA’s plan to revive the Houston Comets is threatened by a trademark dispute with a mysterious company. Legal allowed the trademark for Houston Comets to collapse in 2021. A company called TSTM Holdings applied for the Houston Comets trademark before the WNBA did.
And the Houston Comets were one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises. It says here the other company is a Delaware limited liability company called TSTM Holdings who submitted its trademark registration application in 2024. The WNBA, which allowed the Houston Comets trademark to lapse in 2021, is opposing their application to the federal trademarks office.
Well yeah, they let the trademark lapse. My favorite part about all this is that they literally started a page saying “The Houston Comets Dynasty Returns” when they don’t own the trademark. They couldn’t have waited. They couldn’t have tried to buy the trademark. All they have done is let a trademark lapse and years later someone buys the trademark and then publicly announces they’re becoming the Houston Comets.
They released a website called HoustonComets.com. So, if anything, it sounds like whoever this company is that owns the trademark might somehow have a case against the WNBA. I don’t know the legality of it all, but there’s not a 0% chance of that happening.
There is always a chance that the WNBA could be in trouble. It says here as well they’re having trouble reclaiming the trademarks for Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock too. The league was granted expansion in Cleveland and Detroit respectively but was denied trademark registration for the Shock and is facing opposition for Cleveland Rockers.
Both names are registered to the WBL, a startup pro league that is yet to tip off. If you guys don’t know, two years ago the Sacramento Monarchs, Detroit Shock, Cleveland Rockers, and Houston Comets trademarks were all available to be purchased and I think the trademark was available for something like $500, which is hilarious.
And the difference with Houston’s situation is while Cleveland did not publicly commit to reviving their old team names, Houston announced its plan to return as the Houston Comets while they don’t actually have the trademark.
They only sorted it all out and the day it was all sorted they announced the trademark. So, it genuinely raises the question: do they intend to use the Comets trademark or are they angling for a payout? If you take for granted the WNBA abandoned prior rights, so it’s not able to overcome these applications, and those actually turn into registrations because TSTM Holdings does in fact make use of it, then they’re going to have priority and they’re going to be able to block the WNBA from using the name at all.
But there’s a bunch of “ifs” in the statement. My guess is that they are getting a big payout. My guess is they’re getting a payout. They will always say, “Yeah, we intend to use it. We intend to use it. We are going to set up an AAU team called the Houston Comets.”
I don’t know anything for sure. My guess is that it’s easy to prove or show you have some future intent of using it. That being said, not a good look for Houston. Not a good look for Houston at all.
We’ve really got to the stage where when it comes to the Houston Comets, it is realistically unlikely they become the Houston Comets unless they get this sorted. And if they’re not allowed to be the Houston Comets, what are the odds of Tilman Fertitta saying, “I don’t actually want to take this team”? You just never know.
Of all the owners, it does seem like Tilman Fertitta basically stole the Connecticut Sun team. And they’ve released merchandise for the Houston Comets without a trademark for the Houston Comets. This could bite them badly.
This could actually bite the WNBA or Tilman Fertitta. I don’t know exactly. But what do they have? TC Reimagine Toyota Center. This could bite them badly. They’re selling merch for something they don’t own the trademark to. That is not smart. There is no way that’s smart.
Again, maybe they get the trademark, but surely it’s not smart selling merch for something where you don’t own the trademark.
And yeah, it is kind of crazy because realistically a company came in and bought the trademark. It’s like people buying domains and waiting to sell them later. I do think that’s probably what’s happening here.
But also, do the WNBA want to get into a long legal battle when the Houston Comets are supposed to come into the league in a couple of years and it might take longer than that? Or do they want to just pay them off?
And my guess is that they’re going to be the Houston Comets. They are going to be able to sell all that merch and there’s going to be a payoff because let’s be real, whoever owns the trademark can just say, “Well, they’re selling merch with our trademark. This is what we’re looking at doing.”
And then there’s going to be some form of agreement or payoff in the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, in order to get this trademark back.
Someone said the league let its prior registrations lapse and other entities moved in. Yep. This was absolutely avoidable. Basically, they just never thought there was going to be expansion in 2021. They never thought Houston was ever going to get a team again. They never thought the league was going to grow again. They never thought Caitlin Clark was going to come out of college.
It’s as simple as that.
Because it was before the Caitlin Clark boom. And if you want to say, “They could see it was coming, the league was growing,” remember Paige Bueckers had already had her National Player of the Year season by the time this trademark ran out.
So they didn’t think Paige Bueckers was going to do anything close to this either. They didn’t expect Caitlin Clark to do what Caitlin Clark did. And it is genuinely crazy.
The fact is that as of right now, the WNBA appear to be selling merch for something they don’t have a trademark to, which could be crazy.
ALSO READ: LATEST TRANDING NEWS
