Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The branding for Utah's NHL team may be coming into focus — at least the branding for its inaugural season.
Over the weekend, trademark applications were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for eight logos and wordmarks all using the expected placeholder name "Utah Hockey Club."
The applications were filed by the same group (Uyte LLC) that filed applications on all 20 team names in the Smith Entertainment Group survey before it went live to the public.
The eight logos feature the same "Utah" wordmark, and the colors blue, black and white have been claimed as part of some of the logos.
Sportslogo.net reported Friday that one of the logos featured in one of the applications appeared on NHL.com's logo files — a pretty good indication we're inching closer to the process being official.
Now, that doesn't mean the "Utah" wordmark or the colors will be a permanent part of the official brand. The organization has made it clear any logo, uniform, and name used this season will be temporary.
"Utah's NHL team is a community asset, and we want to make sure that the community has a say in what the name is," team owner Ryan Smith said last month. "It is only fitting that our fans get the rare opportunity to help name the team they'll be cheering for."
The team is currently going through a fan-voting process to reach the permanent team name (Mammoth, Yeti and two others have supposedly made it past the first round of voting), and then SEG will turn to a creative studio to build a brand around the name.
SEG previously said an official name won't be revealed until well into the first season. But as for Year 1, it looks like it will be the Utah Hockey Club with blue, black and white colors.
