The organization behind the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts league has filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft for a promotional phrase used on the back of the box for its recently released Kinect game
Fighters Uncaged.
UFC owner Zuffa LLC brought the federal suit in the U.S. District Court of Nevada over the phrase "Become the ULTIMATE FIGHTING weapon," on the back of the game's box.
Zuffa alleges that the deliberate capitalization and bolding of the "ULTIMATE FIGHTING" portion of the phrase is "confusingly similar to the us of UFC Marks, including the ULTIMATE FIGHTING name and mark on Zuffa licensed video games," according to court documents obtained by Gamasutra.
The firm further alleges that Ubisoft is trying to "trade on the goodwill" of the UFC, and that their use of the trademark tarnishes UFC's name by associating their mixed martial arts tournaments with the game's illegal street fighting.
"Zuffa has grown successful by moving away from the image of MMA as illegal street fighting. ... This was no easy task, and required years and much efforts to reach today's legitimacy and widespread acceptance," the documents read.
Overall, Zuffa is seeking to stop the distribution of
Fighters Uncaged until and unless the the Ultimate Fighting trademarks and its variations are removed, as well as other unspecified compensatory, consequential, statutory, incidental and exemplary damages.
THQ publishes licensed titles under the
UFC Unleashed mixed martial arts brand, which
sold over 2 million copies in its original incarnation last year -- though this year's franchise iteration appears to have performed significantly worse.
