Federal judge denies NCAA’s request to block DraftKings from using ‘March Madness’ references

(AsiaGameHub) –   The NCAA had applied for an emergency temporary restraining order to prevent the betting operator from utilizing its trademarks.

US.- A federal judge has turned down the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) attempt to prevent DraftKings from using registered trademarks connected to its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The NCAA had lodged a complaint in an Indianapolis federal court seeking an emergency temporary restraining order to bar the company from using the terms March Madness, Final Four, Elite Eight, and Sweet Sixteen.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt decided that the NCAA did not demonstrate that the platform’s use of the terms would lead to irreparable harm. However, she remarked: “With further discovery the NCAA may be able to show it is entitled to a preliminary or permanent injunction, and those claims remain pending.”

DraftKings maintained that the terms were “the universally recognised names for the tournaments and their rounds, used by millions of college basketball fans, journalists, and participants in the sports-betting ecosystem. They are the same words used by other online sportsbooks, who have not been singled out by the NCAA’s fevered complaint.”