NBA star LeBron James wants to be remembered as “More Than An Athlete.”
Back in 2020, James’s company Uninterrupted IP LLC (“UNIP”) was one of several hit with a trademark infringement suit by a Maryland youth charitable organization called Game Plan Inc. (“Game Plan”). Game Plan sought a whopping $33 million in damages, claiming it had registered the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office two years prior. While Game Plan brought this suit in the federal District Court of Washington D.C., the case was paused pending the decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) as to who really owned the mark.
According to Game Plan, its president, CEO, and participants began wearing T-shirts featuring an “I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE” logo to a game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Washinton Wizards on October 8, 2017, at a time when, ironically enough, James was in the same building bearing a Cavalier uniform. Game Plan claims to have registered the mark in 2018, and executed a full court press when James posted a picture on Instagram of a neon sign reading “I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE” in July 2018. Game Plan’s complaint alleged that UNIP made agreements with ESPN, Nike, and Take-Two to use the slogan in association with James.
In the TTAB case, a deeper history was unveiled which UNIP used to break the press. Rewind the game tape to years before Game Plan’s 2017 logo, when DeAndra Alex, the founder of More Than An Athlete Inc., grew her company to promote the non-sports side of athletes. Alex registered the mark for publicity and sales promotions in 2012 and created branded products to sell at games, online, and at schools to promote her campaign.
Even though Alex’s mark was not registered for wristbands and T-shirts, her sale of T-shirts bearing the “More Than An Athlete” phrase was deemed “sufficient to establish valid and enforceable common law trademark rights,” according to the TTAB. The game tape even revealed that Alex set a hard screen on Game Plan, the evidence showing she reached out to the owner of Game Plan and objected to its use of the mark when Game Plan filed its trademark application. Game Plan shot up a prayer from deep arguing to the TTAB that Alex abandoned the mark, but could not connect with the rim when offering no evidence to support that assertion.
Fast forward to 2019, Alex and her company entered into a purchase agreement with UNIP, at which time she transferred all rights of the mark to UNIP and ceased all use of the mark. The TTAB blew the final whistle declaring that the assignment was recorded by UNIP, “which constitutes prima facie evidence of the execution of the underlying assignment,” and with the absence of any evidence rebutting the assignment, UNIP was declared the owner of the rights to the MORE THAN AN ATHLETE mark.
While Game Plan conceded defeat, you may soon see a rematch added to the season schedule by way of appeal. But for the time being, tally another victory for the James legacy.