Looks like it is Geek vs Muscle as Canada’s biggest convention for Sci-Fi/Comic/Gaming/Horror/Anime – FanExpo – has issued a challenge to the brutal hand to hand combat world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
But this particular challenge won’t be in a ring. It will be in the court of law.
Hobbystar’s FanExpo is pretty sure that UFC Fan Expo is stepping on a little thing called Trademark infringement.
Hobby Star Marketing – operators of the Toronto Fan Expo convention – have filed an injunction against Zuffa LLC – the operators of the Ultimate Fighting Championship league – and convention company Reed Exhibitions over the name of this upcoming weekend’s “UFC Fan Expo” show in Toronto.
Hobbystar hasn’t gone after the UFC events in other countries as they only hold the tradmark for FanExpo in Canada.
Other concerns arose around the various events in other geek conventions that use “Comic Con” moniker, but with so many happening and Comic-Con International ceded their right to challenge the use of the word after decades of the term labeling similar conventions without contestation.
But at the end of the day, Hobbystar has a case. They do own the tradmark for FanExpo, and UFC is clearly using that title to brand their events. To make matters worse, the slogan for Hobbystar’s FanExpo is “The Ultimate Fan Experience” – also part of the trademark.
Guess what the UFC Fan Expo claims of it’s events?
