The NHL’s newest franchise, the Utah Mammoth, has filed a federal lawsuit against a hockey equipment bag manufacturer over an ongoing trademark dispute involving the team’s name and branding.
Filed in U.S. District Court in Utah, the lawsuit claims that negotiations between the Utah Mammoth and Oregon-based Mammoth Hockey LLC have reached an impasse. The legal action seeks resolution over the rights to the “Mammoth” name and associated trademarks.
“Utah Mammoth and the NHL believe strongly that we have the right to use the name Utah Mammoth under federal and state law, and that our use will not harm the defendant or its business in any way,” said Smith Entertainment Group in a public statement. “We have taken this action only after careful consideration based on the defendant’s position.”
The Utah franchise, which moved from Arizona to Salt Lake City in 2024, played its inaugural NHL season under the placeholder name "Utah Hockey Club." In May, the organization officially adopted the name “Utah Mammoth” and released a new logo featuring a stylized mammoth.
Shortly afterward, Mammoth Hockey — a company that manufactures oversized hockey gear bags and has operated since 2014 — issued a cease-and-desist letter. The company argued that the similar branding could confuse customers and negatively affect its business, particularly among fans of rival NHL teams who might avoid products they perceive to be affiliated with the Utah club.
Both the team and the company use mammoth-shaped logos and are associated with hockey-specific branding, according to the cease-and-desist filing.
In a statement to the Deseret News, Mammoth Hockey co-founder Erik Olson responded:
“Mammoth Hockey intends to vigorously defend the litigation recently commenced against it by Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League and protect its longstanding trademark used in connection with the hockey goods it has manufactured and sold for the past 10 years.”
The lawsuit could set a precedent for how intellectual property conflicts are handled when new professional sports franchises enter established brand territory — especially in niche markets like hockey equipment manufacturing.
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