The UTMB and the Ultra-Trail Trademark
January 7, 2009 ·
Written by trailrunningSoul.com ·
Filed Under News
Paul Bateson, race director of the Al Andalus Ultra Trail – former RAW Spain – brought to my attention an issue he is currently having with the Ultra Trail Mont-Blanc organization. As per the emails he got from a member of the French ultra he is not authorized to use Ultra-Trail as part of the race name. The UTMB claim is that Ultra-Trail is a trademark of theirs and that it can’t be comercially used without previous authorization. Specifically “[you can't use], without our written permission, a trademark identical or similar to the ULTRA-TRAIL® trademark to designate products and services identical or similar to those designed in our trademarks.” Under those terms, forget to name your race as Ultra-Trail, Ultratrail or anything that is too close to this words.
Secondly, to get UTMB’s written authorization to use Ultra-Trail – or any similar terms – on a race, the event will have to be “used only for races in full nature of more than 80 km, in only one stage, in semi-autonomy, respectful of the environment and without any price money.” If I say ultra trail, everyone in the running world will understand what kind of event I’m talking about. But is there any international commitee that has wrtitten down the characteristics an ultra trail race has to have to be called that way? I couldn’t find it so if anyone knows that please leave a comment.
So Paul Bateson faces the situation to change the name of his race before 2010 if he wants it to be a qualifiying race for the UTMB and escape from copyright infringement trouble. There are other races out there with the Ultra-Trail words on its title (Madeira Island Ultra Trail for example ). So the questions is: is someone aware of any other race director getting one of those letters? Is the ultra running world becoming so commercially interesting to start having this kind of disrupting situations?
Secondly, to get UTMB’s written authorization to use Ultra-Trail – or any similar terms – on a race, the event will have to be “used only for races in full nature of more than 80 km, in only one stage, in semi-autonomy, respectful of the environment and without any price money.” If I say ultra trail, everyone in the running world will understand what kind of event I’m talking about. But is there any international commitee that has wrtitten down the characteristics an ultra trail race has to have to be called that way? I couldn’t find it so if anyone knows that please leave a comment.
So Paul Bateson faces the situation to change the name of his race before 2010 if he wants it to be a qualifiying race for the UTMB and escape from copyright infringement trouble. There are other races out there with the Ultra-Trail words on its title (Madeira Island Ultra Trail for example ). So the questions is: is someone aware of any other race director getting one of those letters? Is the ultra running world becoming so commercially interesting to start having this kind of disrupting situations?
I think this is silly. Ultra specifies that the race is a long one and Trail lets us know that it isn’t a road race. They’re kinda generic terms.
But, in adventure racing there was a similar thing (no law suits as far as I know) with events cropping up calling themselves Eco Challenge. Eco Challenge was trademarked (Mark Burnett event and tv production, pre-Survivor). This I can grasp because Eco Challenge doesn’t really specify anything (except that the event is challenging).
Ultra and trail are too generic. Next step would be to trademark “Trail” hahaha
I totally agree with you Lisa. It’s like trying to get the copyright on ultramarathon. It has become a word on itself defining a type of sport. But copyright laws are getting so crazy (Microsoft trying to register 1s and 0s or T-Mobile doing the same on the magenta colour) that sometimes certain decisions are difficult to understand. If the UTMB really has the ultra-trail trademark, let’s hope they are sensible enough not to push their rights too hard
TRS,
To be honest, being from the States, I’d never heard of another race using “Ultra Trail.” This actually backs up the trademark holder’s argument that this is a term specifically associated UTMB. Using the term “trail ultra” would be completely different, as in American ultra usage, that describes an ultra that is run on the trails…. the reverse is not neutral usage in the circles in which I run. Plus, UTMB has some sort of right to develop a name… it’s not like they can stop folks from using the term Mont Blanc. ;-)
In the States, The North Face puts on a series of “Endurance Challenge” events. Sure, this could describe any trail race, but the term wasn’t widely used before TNF came along.
Having worked for the better part of a year and a half on building a brand using generic words “i run far.” I’d hate to see someone start a business with the same or very similar name without reaching out to me first. I don’t think that makes me (or the UTMB folks) a bad person, I just want to protect my hard work! :-)
-Bryon