Report: Utah Hockey Club has multiple trademarks denied

The Utah Hockey Club is reportedly facing some legal hurdles as it searches for a permanent name.

According to a report from Ryan Miller of KSL in Salt Lake City, the name "Utah Yetis" was denied by the United States Patent and Trademark Office due to a "likelihood of confusion" with the Yeti cooler brand.

A non-final action on the application was issued on Jan. 9 and Utah HC has three months to issue a response with more evidence, according to Miller. He adds that the names "Utah Blizzard" and "Utah Venom" were also denied for similar reasons. Utah Hockey Club, the team's temporary name, faces a separate challenge due to the fact that "the applied-for mark is primarily geographically descriptive of the origin of applicant's goods and/or services," Miller reports.

The former Arizona Coyotes franchise moved to Salt Lake City ahead of this season after the team was bought by Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, a co-founder of survey company Qualtrics. In the spring Smith announced a poll for fans to vote on potential names. The poll initially featured 20 choices and was later narrowed down to six finalists:

Blizzard
Mammoth
Outlaws
Venom
Yeti
Utah Hockey Club, or Utah HC

Miller reports that the names "Mammoth" and "Outlaws" did not face a challenge from the patent office. The non-final action for "Outlaws" was issued on Jan. 9 and is active for three months but the non-final action for "Mammoth" was delivered on Nov. 5, meaning only one more month remains before that application is abandoned.