Behind Vince McMahon during his livestreamed announcement was, what many speculated to be, the professional football league's new logo. It appears that logo might be around to stay, as Alpha Entertainment, LLC (Vince McMahon's company and owner of the XFL applications filed last month) recently filed an application to register that logo as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The application is for the logo seen above and was filed on January 24th (the day before the press conference officially announcing the league). Much like the trademark applications for XFL filed last month, this application covers a broad range of goods and services (which appear to be substantially similar to those covered by last month's applications). Some of the covered goods and services include:
- Entertainment services in the nature of professional football games and exhibitions (Class 41).
- Downloadable software in the nature of mobile applications for displaying information relating to football exhibitions, football schedules, media guides, audio and visual recordings relating to football (Class 9);
- Jewelry, watches, clocks, earrings, pins, bracelets, necklaces, charms, rings (Class 14);
- Posters, calendars, pictorial prints, series of books relating to football, magazines relating to football, stickers, bumper stickers, printed tickets to sports games and events, souvenir programs for sports events (Class 16);
- A variety of clothing items, including shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, sweaters, and hats (Class 25); and
- Toys and sporting goods (Class 28).
Alpha Entertainment filed this application on an intent to use basis, suggesting it is not currently using this mark in commerce but has a bona fide intention to do so in the near future (which makes sense, considering the league won't premier until 2020). Before this mark can be registered, Alpha Entertainment must actually start using it in commerce and submit sufficient proof of same to the Trademark Office.
This application for the XFL logo, and the five applications for the letters XFL filed last month, are the only XFL-related federal trademark applications filed by Alpha Entertainment, LLC so far.
However, before all the XFL applications, Alpha Entertainment filed two duplicate trademark applications for URFL in September 2017 on an intent to use basis. Those applications cover goods and services nearly identical to those covered by the XFL applications. Perhaps URFL was another name Vince McMahon was considering for the XFL? Something else?