Another Utah Trademark Update: Utah Outlaws

Another possible Utah NHL team name has entered the fray: Utah Outlaws.

A trademark application for that name was filed by Uyte, LLC, on Friday.  Uyte is the company that filed trademark applications for five names on Tuesday and added one for “Utah Yetis” on Thursday.

It should be noted that the connection between Uyte and Smith Entertainment Group, who owns the currently-unnamed Utah NHL franchise, has seemingly not been confirmed.  The names they’ve filed applications to trademark are ones Ryan Smith has spoken about.  Additionally, they’re spending a lot of money to remain anonymous, which makes them look like valid applications rather than squatters.

Given the timeframe that the Utah NHL group is working with, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re seeing things come in in drips and drabs.  If this is indeed Smith, he has the money to protect as many options as possible while trying to quickly figure out an identity.  As such, I would expect this process to continue.

Additionally, I think this is going to make it hard to determine what the team name will be in advance of a formal announcement or leak from the organization.  In the past, teams have only filed for trademark applications on “finalist” names, while Utah seems to be collecting every name they can.