Ubisoft Sued By UFC Over Fighters Uncaged Tagline

Ubisoft has found itself on the business end of a lawsuit filed this week on behalf of the Ultimate Fighting Championship over Ubisoft’s allegedly trademark infringing use of the phrase “Ultimate Fighting” in a tagline found of the box for its Kinect game Fighters Uncaged. The offending phrase reads, “Become the Ultimate Fighting weapon!”

According to Game Politics, the UFC contends the use of the phrase could confuse potential consumers, and the organization is requesting an injunction be issued to prevent the game from being sold, that the phrase be removed from game’s box, unspecified damages, and court costs.

UFC’s parent company Zuffa, LLC trademarked “Ultimate Fighting” back in 2002, and, chances are, whenever anyone hears the phrase “ultimate fighting,” the first thing that comes to mind is UFC. Still, the confusion argument doesn’t seem particularly strong in this case, especially since THQ’s UFC games, at least the most recent one, UFC Undisputed 2010, not only have “UFC” in the title, but also carry a prominent stick on the cover that specifies, “Official product. UFC. Ultimate Fighting Championship. As real as it gets.”

As such, it looks as though UFC has gone more than out of its way to make sure there is absolutely zero confusion about what is and what is not an official UFC game. Then again, I’m just a caveman who fell in some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. What do I know?

Source: Game Politics

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