UFC files trademark for 'UFSEA' following satirical suggestion from John Oliver | Hacker News Reader

UFC files trademark for 'UFSEA' following satirical suggestion from John Oliver

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65 pointshhs22 comments

Thought it was an anti-typosquatting type of maneuver at first.

Useful point, credit bureaus have been trolled [0], as cited by Wikipedia [1].

[0]: https://www.mediaite.com/online/john-oliver-creates-fake-web...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typosquatting

Trademarks normally work under a "use it or lose it" policy, so it's slightly different to avoiding typosquatting like you could with a domain, in that you actually have to demonstrate usage of it to maintain the registration.

I wonder what the international (or national) law would be if UFC did take over an island somewhere. They could pretty much do whatever they wanted, unless the jurisdiction interceded.

I'm not sure there are any islands in existence today that are outside of some sovereign state's territorial jurisdiction.

And if you try to create one you’re gonna get a reality check really quick when you allegedly threaten the sovereignty of some nation state like those seasteading people did.

How about just about to make your own island in international water?

UNCLOS says that any artificial islands within the exclusive economic zone of a country are subject to that country. This means in practice that you'd have to build an island that's not on a continental shelf... good luck with that.

What about a really, really big oil rig?

I don't know if you would even need a big one. There are definitely shipping container ships that have huge decks that are more than enough space. I think if you have a decent margin around a helicopter pad you might even be able fit the octagon, cameras, corners and judges.

In the Antarctic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius#Current_claims_o...

The UFC does put on events in places without fighting regulations. For context, in most of the locations the UFC puts on events (fights) there are government regulation around combat sports, where a government commission sets the rules, and provides judges and referees.

When the UFC puts on events in unregulated locations they act as their own commission, following the rules of the Nevada commission or the rules of Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC). They hire experienced judges and licensed referees that would normally be used in regulated places like Nevada.

The UFC already contracts out to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to do what is basically olympic level drug testing of all their athletes.

There are unified rules for MMA, set by the ABC. The UFC very much wants to be legit and legal, so "whatever they want" will be following established rules and regulations.

Bloomberg has a great article explaining this in more detail and the history of the UFC: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-08/as-ufc-pu...

Not exactly. MMA governing bodies could revoke licenses from fighters, refs, doctors, etc. participating in events on the island if things aren't up to spec. The threat of never being able to work in Nevada again would be enough of a deterrent, for example, to make everyone involved keep things on the up and up.

>MMA governing bodies could revoke licenses from fighters, refs, doctors, etc. participating in events on the island if things aren't up to spec.

The governing bodies are utterly toothless. What would be the point of "banning" anyone involved with the world's premier MMA organization? Then they'd have no work to do, and no purpose. Nevada needs the UFC more than the UFC needs Nevada. Remember, MMA was banned in New York state for a long time, so the UFC held events elsewhere. Who loses then? It's a weird captured relationship.

Can they enforce any trademark if it was used before publicly?

You can trademark a lot of stuff, but John Oliver isn't going to challenge this, except perhaps to make a joke of it.

There's plenty of evidence on Last Week Tonight that he's a generous guy in general. If he manages to hold onto his money I expect him to become a sort of comedy-philanthropist a couple gigs from now.

Indeed, John Oliver tends to say what charity the comedy piece would go to.

John should follow up with UFCEE, UFSEE, YOU-FC, etc.

The suggestion is related to the naming of Fight Island, not typos.

I guess UFC is worried that someone could file it and do damage to the UFC brand.

Or Dana White wanted to get some publicity. I dunno.

I feel for the fighters trying to stay healthy as well as the business which employs them all.

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