The United States Football League was slated to start in April, with FOX Sports fronting a new version of the league that ran from 1983 to 1985. That‘s in doubt, though, after the owners of the original USFL filed a lawsuit Monday against the network concerning the league with the same name, calling it an “unabashed counterfeit.”
The lawsuit said the outlet copied the original logo as well as all eight team names and branding without the permission from the original league’s creators. Additionally, it claims that FOX Sports “traded on the false narrative” that the new USFL was a reboot of the original.
The filed complaint includes claims for trademark infringement, false advertising and false association.
“Fox has no claim to this legacy and no right to capitalize on the goodwill of the league,“ the complaint said, in part. “Much less does Fox have a right to deceive the public into believing that it is the USFL—or that Fox’s League’s teams were the USFL teams.”
A lawyer representing FOX Sports and the new USFL responded Tuesday to the lawsuit, saying in a statement to Deadline that the complaint is “completely without merit,” also claiming that ”the new USFL registered its intellectual property rights in 2011 and is excited to launch games on schedule on April 16. The eleventh-hour attempt to extract value from the exciting new USFL is utterly frivolous, and we are exploring all options for redress.”
Steve Young, Reggie White and Herschel Walker all played in the original USFL. The Real USFL LLC, which is the holding company created by the USFL’s former team owners, said it still licenses the trademark for throwback attire, books and movies.
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