Judicial Ruling in Socios Delivers Lessons for Sports Marketing Companies

By Neil Popovic, San Francisco partner in the Business Trial Practice Group and member of the Sports Industry Team, and Maximilian Fuery, a summer associate in the San Francisco office and student at UC Hastings College of the Law. On March 27, 2023, Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction limiting use of the mark “Socios.com” in a trademark dispute between two sports marketing companies.[1] Although the court vacated the preliminary injunction a month later when the parties